Te eA D ULB O NEB OEE Ee IN 19 
Early Experiences in Imitating Bird Songs 
As a boy the thought of someday being able to make birds answer 
me was uppermost in my mind. Let me in this article tell you of 
some of the hardships and pleasures involved in doing this work. 
A man once told me that I had a double note whistle, something 
rare in whistling. In trying out my capabilities I found that Robins 
sometimes answered my attempts. The first whistling was crude but 
birds answered sometimes—not always. Then there were the early 
attempts attracting Quail. Once while walking on a cold winter day a 
covey of Quail was observed. I crawled into a straw stack to get warm. 
Much to my elation and joy a bunch of Quail ran from one brush pile 
to another. Then came the first attempt to coax birds close to me. 
I called softly and carefully. The Quail came one by one until I could 
have reached out and touched them. 
How much joy and happiness came into my life those first years 
nobody knows. There were times when it took careful reading, careful 
days afield and the job of remembering the exact tone and inflation of 
the human voice to fit a hall and making the songs of the birds real. 
I wrote the songs down in words as they sounded to me. Those im- 
pressions were the lasting ones. And how hard it was to conceal the 
fact that I was making that phase of bird study. Well, to make a long 
story short, I was out in the field a great deal from twelve years of 
age on. 
The first time the songs were given in public was at a play our 
church gave. Twelve calls were given. A newspaper man heard the 
first attempt and urged me to continue my studies; I took the hint 
and kept up my crude attempts until people began to take notice and 
the birds too. The first trials at doing the ‘“Hurry-hurry-hurry” call 
of the Cardinal are still vivid in my mind. Now I whistle seven calls 
of the Cardinal. Then the days afield trailing the elusive Killdeer 
with his wing-broken stunt. Now I know of twelve species that resort 
to that ruse to evade capture. 
The distress call was not known to me for several years when I 
suddenly used it one day and found it quite effective. Now experiences 
have been noted when nine species were seen almost instantly, investi- 
gating where the noise came from. Here at the Melcher bird refuge in 
Florida a few days ago I saw sixteen birds attracted by a black snake 
and they were highly excited at my intrusion into their world. Just 
for fun the distress call was given. A mocking bird just about knocked 
my hat off. Birds become highly excited during the nesting period 
when this alarm note is given. A vesper sparrow trailed over my shoe 
tops one time and other birds have come very close to me with wings 
drooping. I only use the alarm note when trying to keep a bird in 
view a little longer. 
Birds have many rare notes, notes perhaps which human beings 
very seldom hear. Only one who has the time and inclination to be 
in the field a great deal and who goes in any kind of weather, hears 
