INTRODUCTION 



menced my comparisons between the various records. 

 Since that time very many works have been perused, 

 but only in a few have any acceptable records been 

 found. Even Mr. Simeon Pease Cheney's work, 

 full of musical notation, hardly touches upon 

 imitation, and has no observations on the influence 

 of heredity. There are poetical writers who de- 

 scribe such incidents as the lark soaring in the sky, 

 pouring out his soul in music for the little brown 

 mate trustfully listening in her nest ; but they never 

 remark that the lark utters a chattered song when 

 he fights. There are many ornithologists who name 

 certain birds as imitative ; but when their descrip- 

 tions are examined, the reader can only infer that 

 the mimics were caged specimens. I have nothing 

 to say about caged birds, except in quotation, or in 

 relation to experiments with young birds, or where 

 such arbitrary notes as those of the collared turtle- 

 dove, young pheasant, and young partridge are 

 concerned. In making my investigations, various 

 ideas on the causes of certain features of the exer- 

 cising of the voice in birds occurred to me. These 

 are set out in chapter vi., on " Noticeable Incidents 

 connected with Bird -song." One of the most 

 marked of these features was the construction of 

 certain songs by the rapid repetition of call-notes. 



