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Tangara, Sep. 21, 1959, III.

as those described last year.  The only new aspect I noted today was that A (and B?) occasionally uttered some bisyllabic CN's instead of the usual monosyllabic type; "Whee whuh whee whuh ...."

When A was sitting relatively quietly, not singing, with head and nape feathers smoothed down, he would give one interesting reaction whenever either Fae or I looked at him intently or Fae held a mirror up close to his cage.  He would suddenly fluff out all the feathers of his head & nape (brilliant turquoise).  Many of Fae's Estudiars apparently do the same thing in similar circumstances.  She has been calling it the "Embarrassment Reaction"!  I shall call it "E".  True, today, A did E and then immediately did a general shake of the whole body and tail.  This might indicate that the E is merely an intention movement of a general shake.

I might add that, according to the label on their cage, that both A and B have been in the zoo for at least 3 years.

Tangara, I                 

September 26, 1959
London Zoo

Watching the same ? as before

The bisyllabic CN's described immediately above, i.e. "Whee whuh whee whuh", may conceivably have been related to the "song".  They are relatively softer, less abrupt, than the usual "Trit" CN's like those of other species.  When sitting on a perch, making a lot of ? movements "indicating a desire to fly), both the birds here may utter singlet, doublet, or triplet "Trit" CN's. (They don't - at least usually - give CN's while actually flying - but this may only be due to the fact that they have almost no room to fly in their tiny cage.)