o 
IMl 
Ir^clv c *-^6-^Csi^^ 
-<£ jbrt^L 
77 
M*j7 
^ ~~&<lZ*-^ o-k- ^e^-<- **■ — at-££- 
/l^tt^J) (ZL^c**-d- ^-‘-“^•^ 0~*-^~ 
o—^*l ^yyyyy' e ir ^ s^sc* 
^ <- + *--*-'*» — — 
Zc £h^L j4r\ /r-*y - 
~~^kj~x^ i^tx. &y 
tX. Jj LJ ~'^‘ '4-i^*-2c'J o%~ (7y &- 
( Ua*jOC L^s-^-^tt-fA^ ^e^sT.*. dO^y^fv^-j' ~Z\ J^U. 
The Singing of Birds. E.P.Bicknell. 
Geothlypis trichas. Maryland Yellow-throat. 
There is probably a dual season of song with this species, 
which is obscured by variation in the singing-time with individ- 
uals. Though it usually remains in song all through the sum- 
mer, in the last w'eeks of July and the first of August singing is 
less general and less spirited than either before or after. Often 
after the middle of August songs w r ill be louder and more fre- 
quent than for weeks previously. Singing may cease at any time 
from about the middle of August to the end of the month, or first 
part of September (August 12 and 19, to September 3, 4, 1 1 and 
13) ; but September singing is unusual. The moult takes place 
in August, and is completed in September, when the birds 
become fat. 
With this species the habit of song-flight is well developed. 
The little black-masked bird seems to believe it necessary 
that singing should continue through the whole course of the 
flight, and as the ordinary song, with which it begins, comes 
to an end while yet the bird is in the air, the time is filled 
out by a disarranged medley of notes very different from its 
usual utterance. I have not often seen these performances before 
mid-summer, and the August songs of the species are most fre- 
quently those which accompany these flights, which are oftenest 
indulged in the late afternoon or towards evening. This species, 
and the Oven-bird, and Yellow-breasted Chat appear to be the 
only members of the family Mniotiltidas with which the song- 
flight is a normal and regular habit. 
Auk, I, July, 1884. p. X/6 - Z/6 
Anfe, XV, Jan., 1898, p, t>'f. 
The Aerial Song of the Maryland Yellow-throat. — The flight song of 
the Maryland Yellow-throat ( Geothylfiis trichas') one finds stated in 
many of the leading manuals as never heard until late July or August. 
This miss-statement, known to be such by many ornithologists, I have 
never seen questioned. 
I have noted this flight song in Eastern Massachusetts as early as 
May 16, only about a week after their arrival, and heard it off and on 
throughout the rest of May, June, and July. — Reginald Heber Howe, 
Jr., Long-wood, Mass. 
7*f 
