262 INSTINCTS OF BIRDS. 



Tweed, in Great Britain. It has been ascertained 

 too, contrary to the opinion of Linnaeus, that 

 young cuclcoos, before they come to maturity, 

 utter a feeble cry only, they cannot, therefore, 

 acquire the calls of their species while they 

 remain in this country. No wonder then, that 

 the conclusion Dr. Darwin arrived at was erro- 

 neous, when the premises on which his reasoning 

 is grounded are so inaccurate. 



It is not, let me remark, intended to insinuate, 

 that birds are incapable of attaining any know- 

 ledge of each others' notes, since our domestic 

 fowls, in many instances, are certainly enabled, 

 by observation and experience, to connect vocal 

 sounds with the ideas they are designed to 

 convey.* The martin also, readily learns to 

 distinguish the swallow's call of alarm ; and the 

 ringed plover, sanderling, and dunlin, when 

 associated together, evince, by the promptitude 

 and exactness with which they perform their 

 various aerial evolutions, that they comprehend 

 one general signal. All that is meant to be 

 insisted upon is, that the notes peculiar to every 



• When our domestic cock gives notice to his mates, that 

 he has discovered some choice morsel of food, the turkey hens 

 always hasten to secure the delicacy, which the gallant chan- 

 ticleer suffers them to take, even out of his beak, without the 

 least molestation. 



