FOREST AND STREAM 
809 
The Calls and Cries of Birds 
By B. C. Tillett. 
I T would be both interesting and useful if 
some competent naturalist would compile a 
work dealing carefully with the various 
calls and cries of birds. Scattered references 
there are, of course, in most of the works on 
ornithology or natural history generally, and 
some authorities have sought to prove that the 
origin of the notes of birds can be traced to the 
noises with which the singers have always been 
familiar. Darwin put on record his belief that 
there is always the severest rivalry between the 
males of many species to attract the females by 
their singing. Young males in their first essays 
show hardly a rudiment of the future song, and 
continue practising for ten or eleven months till 
at last they are able to “sing their song round.” 
Some social birds, Darwin remarks, apparently 
call to each other for aid and as they flit from 
tree to tree the flock is kept together by chirp 
answering chirp. During the nocturnal migra¬ 
tions of geese and other wild fowl, weird sonor¬ 
ous clangs from the van may be heard in the 
darkness overhead, answered by clangs in the 
rear. These vibrant and clangorous cries in the. 
darkless, and sometimes during storms, have 
given rise to various quaint superstitions. In 
some districts in England the miners refrain 
from whistling out of respect for the invisible 
whistlers whose cries are believed to give warn¬ 
ing of some impending catastrophe. Not long 
ago a body of miners refused to descend a col¬ 
liery because of mysterious noises which they 
ascribed to the “Seven Whistlers.” Moncure 
Conway says that the ill-omened “Seven Whist¬ 
lers” or “Seven Plovers” of English superstition, 
are said to have been Jews who assisted in the 
crucifixion. The rippling whistle of the whim- 
brel has gained it the name of “The Seven 
Whistlers” and we find the poet Wordsworth 
speaking of the old man: 
“He the seven birds had seen that never part, 
Seen the seven whistlers in their nightly rounds, 
And counted them.” 
Baring Gould describes a flock of brant-geese 
“barking like aerial dogs” and that noisy bird, the 
gadwall, has such a loud and singular call that 
it is specified as “strepera.” Birds “beating the 
air with their obstreperous beaks.” 
Ideas differ as to the notes of birds; thus Lap¬ 
landers love to hear the note of the hooper, or 
whistling swan, which they compare with the 
sweetest tones of a violin. The few men of Eng¬ 
land greatly dislike the sound as being, they be¬ 
lieve, a sign of cold weather, lack of fuel, and 
dearth of work. I have heard the name Gabriel 
Hounds associated with the whistling of wid¬ 
geon or teal as they flit from their habitats to 
their feeding grounds—a passage to and from al¬ 
ways made under cover of darkness. 
The clamor of curlews recalls to mind how, 
many years ago, on rainy nights I used to hear 
the bewildered “sickle-bills” flying above the glare 
of town lights, during their autumnal migration. 
One stood thrilled by the sharp key whistling 
note of the dunlins flying among them; and 
when the knot and the godwit, and now and 
again an unfamiliar note sounded on the ear, 
some folk would shake their heads, and think of 
the spirits of the night. 
The notes of some birds approach being ludi¬ 
crous. Some say the woodpeckers laugh. By 
some the woodpecker is called the yaffil, having 
reference to the repeated high notes of the bird. 
“The skylark in ecstasy sang from a cloud, 
And chanticleer crow’d, and the yaffil laughed 
loud.” 
Kingsley, too, in his blessings on the South 
wind, wrote: 
“O blessed yaffil, laughing loud.” 
Birds can be taught various tunes, and un- 
melodious sparrows have been taught to sing 
like linnets. It is rather strange that only small 
birds properly sing, and that birds which sing 
well, as for instance, the nightingale, the black¬ 
cap, the thrush and the skylark are not decorated 
with brilliant colors or other ornaments. 
Naturalists have been puzzled to decide whether 
the many strange cries and notes uttered by male 
birds during the breeding season serve as a charm 
or merely as a call to the female. The nightin¬ 
gale when nesting utters a croak exactly resembl¬ 
ing that of a frog, but at no other season of the 
year. There is a charm in the soft cooing of the 
turtle-dove, but the same cannot be said of the 
screams of the macaws, and the gobbling of the 
turkey-cock. 
Mimicry plays a large part even in many of 
our most familiar bird songs, which reminds us, 
that there are still many unexplored or only par¬ 
tially explored tracks, in the vast realm of na¬ 
tural history in its innumerable branches. 
RABIES AMONG COYOTES. 
For several years past outbreaks of rabies 
among coyotes have been noted in parts of Wash¬ 
ington, Oregon, and Northern Idaho, chiefly in 
a region surrounded by natural barriers which 
tended to confine the outbreak. Nevertheless, 
the existence of this disease having become 
known it has caused a good deal of alarm in the 
infected districts. Domestic animals and human 
beings have been bitten and people were even 
alarmed for the safety of their children on the 
roads to and from school. It is said that the 
disease has now extended into northern Nevada 
and northern California, and is becoming really 
alarming. The fact that the dissemination of the 
disease is occurring through the agency of coy¬ 
otes makes it difficult to meet the situation, for 
the extermination of the coyote in any district 
has proved quite impossible. 
Last year the Forest Service undertook to 
fight the disease by employing hunters to make 
war on coyotes in the national forests of cer¬ 
tain localities, but the situation now seems to 
call for a more comprehensive campaign. A spe¬ 
cial fund of $125,000 was appropriated last year 
for the use of the Biological Survey an the eradi¬ 
cation of harmful animals, both in the national 
forests and upon the public domain, and from 
this fund a special allotment has been made to 
fight the rabies. The Forest Service, the Bio¬ 
logical Survey, and the State Board of Health 
are working together to meet the situation in 
California. Modoc and Lassen Counties have 
been put under quarantine by the State Board, 
which has appointed forest rangers as inspectors 
in Modoc County. 
The spread of this infection is daily assuming 
a more serious aspect. Reports from the Uni¬ 
versity of Nevada covering the period from April 
5 to October 15, 1915, show a record of twelve 
persons bitten by coyotes and nineteen persons 
bitten by dogs. Examination of the brains of 
fifteen coyotes, five dogs, one calf and one other 
animal, April 5 to September 23, show all posi¬ 
tive for rabies except two which were negative. 
Examination of the brains of eighteen coyotes, 
November 1 to 26, show fourteen positive for 
rabies, three negative, and one, owing to the con¬ 
dition of the brain, not determined. There are 
numerous repot ts of coyotes deliberately attack¬ 
ing people, which the normal coyote is too cow¬ 
ardly to undertake. The loss of live stock has 
been severe. 
The State authorities of Utah are very anxi¬ 
ous to have the work of the Survey for that 
State concentrated along its western border in 
order to prevent so far as possible the spread of 
the dread disease into Utah. 
The Biological Survey has increased its hunt¬ 
ers to fifty and has purchased traps and poison, 
and the public is to be enlisted in the campaign 
which will be led by the Biological Survey offi¬ 
cials and the forest rangers. 
EXPLAINS WHY DEER SHED THEIR HORNS. 
The following explanation, which is in answer 
to a hunter’s inquiry, is given by Charles H. El¬ 
don, taxidermist of Williamsport, Pa. The ex¬ 
planation is quite interesting and will explain a 
fact not generally known. 
The shedding of the horns indicate the time 
when the season of selective attachment should 
close. Deer, moose, elk and caribou shed their 
horns. Deer and elk in their wild state shed 
their horns some time in January or February, 
but, in captivity, a little later. 
It requires about thirteen weeks for an elk or 
