May 5.
Hear the seringo note.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 5, 1861
Fringilla savanna
"Although this little Finch cannot be said to have a song,
it is yet continually pouring out its notes.
You see it perched on a fence rail,
the top of a stone, or a tall grass or bush,
mimicking as it were
the sounds of the common cricket."
~ J.J. Audubon
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 5, 1861
Seringo note. See May 1, 1852 ("I hear the note of the shy Savannah sparrow (F. Savanna), that plump bird with a dark-streaked breast that runs and hides in the grass, whose note sounds so like a cricket's in the grass . . . The word seringo reminds me of its note , as if it were produced by some kind of fine metallic spring."); April 22, 1856 ("The seringo also sits on a post, with a very distinct yellow line over the eye,and the rhythm of its strain is ker chick | ker che | ker-char—r-r-r-r | chick, the last two bars being the part chiefly heard."); April 27, 1859 ("Hear and see the seringo in fields next the shore. No noticeable yellow shoulder, pure whitish beneath, dashed throat and a dark-brown line of dashes along the sides of the body."); June 26, 1856 ("[S]aw, apparently, the F. Savanna near their nests (my seringo note), restlessly flitting about me from rock to rock within a rod."); and notes to note to August 11, 1858 (" I heard there abouts the seringo note."); and December 7, 1858 ("Dr. Bryant calls my seringo (i. e. the faint-noted bird) Savannah sparrow.”) See also Guide to Thoreau’s Birds ("Thoreau frequently called the Savannah Sparrow Passerculus sandwichensis the seringo or seringo-bird, but he also applied the name to other small birds.")
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