Spring notes of Junco hyemalis 277 burious actions of a Certhia Am 1876. attention to this matter and it is a pity that this effort is always abandoned in the end for it is a very pretty little performance. The usual trill is given then come round liquid little notes, than a barely attempted snatch of singing melody broken off suddenly by the monotonous trill again. The effect of all this is to impress one with the idea of musical ability of some excellence of which this is the first budding. Some of the fragmentary notes are of exceeding sweetness and occasionally a performer will burst out in an impassioned rapid flash of melody as if he had just found the key to that which he had been seeking then as if ashamed of his impulsiveness will break off abruptly in the best of it and return to the conventional trill again. This is to one one of the strangest of Natures freaks and either suggests, in the case of Junco, descent from some more musical ancestor or promise of better things in the future; the former hypothesis I prefer: it is as if the bird are trying to recollect some wonderfully sweet melody; trying it again and again it nearly catches the clue [illegible] times, but failing to quite accomplish this the mating season comes and at will returns to the only song it feels sure of. What a pity it could not commence practice sooner: perhaps then it would be ready with its performance in time and would astonish us all with notes excelling even the hermit thrush or the fox sparrow. Saw large numbers of Robins a few blackbirds a few Fox Sparrows. Passer atricap, still in flocks; Juncoes migrating. Saw five Certhias from of the interior a third on one place and caught up