Chap. XIII. VOCAL MUSIC. 55 



assemblage during the autumn.^* Hence it is not at all 

 surprising that male birds should continue singing for 

 their own amusement after the season for courtship is 

 over. 



Singing is to a certain extent, as shewn in a previous 

 chapter, an art, and is much improved by practice. 

 Birds can be taught various tunes, and even the un- 

 melodious sparrow has learnt to sing like a linnet. 

 They acquire the song of their foster-parents,^^ and 

 sometimes that of their neighbours.^® All the common 

 songsters belong to the Order of Insessores, and their 

 vocal organs are much more complex than those of 

 most other birds ; vet it is a sino-ular fact that some 

 of the Insessores, such as ravens, crows, and magpies, 

 possess the proper apparatus,^''' though they never sing, 

 and do not naturally modulate their voices to any great 

 extent. Hunter asserts ^^ that with the true songsters 

 the muscles of the larynx are stronger in the males 

 than in the females ; but with this slight exception there 

 is no difference in the vocal organs of the two sexes, 

 although the males of most species sing so much better 

 and more continuouslv than the females. 



It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing. 

 The Australian genus Menura, however, must be ex- 

 cepted ; for the Menura Alherti, which is about the size 

 of a half-grown turkey, not only mocks other birds, but 

 " its ow^n whistle is exceedingly beautiful and varied." 

 The males congi^egate and form ^^ corrdbonjing places," 

 where they sing, raising and spreading their tails like 



3^ L. Lloyd, 'Game Birds of Sweden,' 1807, p. 25. 



35 Barrington ibid. p. 264. Bechstein, ibid. s. 5. 



36 Bureau de la Malle gives a curious instance (' Annales des Sc. Nat.' 

 Srd series, Zoolog. torn. x. p. 118) of some wild blackbirds in bis garden 

 in Paris wbicb naturally learnt from a caged bird a republican air. 



^' Bishop, in ' Todd s' Cyclop, of Anat. and Pbys.' vol. iv. p. 1496. 

 3s As stated by Barrington in ' Philosoph. Transact.' 1773, p. 262. 



