"West Va April 1874 167 1874 April 27. Petrolinum, West Va. Clear warm & sunny. Clouded up towards night. We all started out after breakfast. I took the S. side of the creek & had hardly entered the woods before a fly, junco jumped up from a fallen log & I knocked him one on the wrist. Fairly in the woods I paused listened in astonishment to the melody of strange & new bird notes that saluted me but soon got to work to unravel the mystery. By noon I returned with 17 birds, 8 L. crester (2 with eggs ready for shell) 2 P. carula, 1 c C. Disjunctus, 2 Lm. Carolinensis 2 P. erythropt. & Say. fuscesc. & 1 H. fulveta. Cardinalis has no end of variation to its song & at present I am not sure of any; its chip is exceedingly like that of Cg. Cyama, L. crester reminds me much of Cg. citata in motion. Its song is also like one of the blue jays crowed, an extremely broad note repeated incessantly. It has also a feminine chip & a Paradin chu de de, L. Carolinensis is a most interesting bird. They are all paired or rather shy & show much conjugal affection. I crowed one & the other would not harm him but just as I was going to shoot again hit by his side caused pain with her bill. P. carula has the note like one the "whew" of L. Carolinensis song. Sp. poichi is apparently absent and is its old familiar self in every respect; S. pusilla likewise. An Aglaurus