The Singing of Birds. E.P.Bicknell. 
Pocecetes gramineus. Grass Finch. 
Where this Sparrow breeds numerously it perhaps sings on 
later into the summer than in the locality of my observations, 
where it is not a common summer bird. In some years I have 
not heard it long -after the entry of July, but usually it sings till 
late in the month, and I am not without dates of its singing in 
early August. 
In the autumn the species as a whole is without song, but in- 
dividuals sometimes infringe the general rule of silence. At 
Saratoga, on September 30, 1883, a bird rose into the air from a 
sandy field, ascending with an excited chippering which passed 
into the musical notes of a varied and extended song; this in- 
stantly suggested the song of the Vesper Sparrow, differing, how- 
ever, in being less definite in theme and more prolonged, but just as 
the songs of many birds while on the wing differ from their usual 
strains. Where the bird alighted a flock of Vesper Sparrows 
scattered up on my approach, and there can be no doubt that it 
was to one of their number that I had listened. I bad not before 
observed the song-flight in this species. Another record of this 
Sparrow’s singing in the autumn has been mislaid. 
Auk, I, Oct. , 1884. p. J 3 O ■ 
LlJ '" J r 00 c 
May and June, and again after the fall moult there is a renewal 
of the spring chantings — an aftermath of song, for the bird ceases 
his soaring lay, and once more sings for the setting of the sun. 
Another peculiar effusion of the Bay-wings is a prolonged 
twittering, uttered after dusk, as the bird runs on the ground. It 
is like a soft, continuous whispering of extracts from his various 
other musical performances. 
Auk, 2, Jan. , 1885. P. J. 3 . 
22 
