Nick, thanks for noting the politically incorrect side of birds song
description. I hope you also see oldsquaw as the same. Its a battle to get
males, and europeon races to see the offensiveness in this. I am scotch-
irish, but hope to see it changed to Long Tailed Duck soon, my husband also
finds it a rather innappropriate name. It seems the original Americans are
the last to see respect in such matters.

Vicki Biltz sawwhet85b at netscape.net












NJPharris at aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 5/18/2000 2:38:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
romea at pmel.noaa.gov writes:

> The canonical description for the Song Sparrow song is the politically
> incorrect:
> "Maids...Maids...get-out-your tea-kettle tea-kettle"

There is actually one description out there that actually helped me recognize

a Song Sparrow by sound before I saw it: _Birds of Seattle and Puget Sound_
describes one of the more common songs as "Hip, hip, hip, hooray, boys!
Spring is here again!"

The "hip, hip, hip" is all on one tone; the "hoo" dips a bit; the "ray" is
high; the "boys" starts low and rises steadily; and "spring is here again" is

a series of four to six fairly low monotones that occur at the end of most
SOSP utterances.

Nick Pharris
Olympia, WA
NJPharris at aol.com


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