246 Mr Black wall on the Instincts of Birds. 



they remain in this country. No wonder, then, that the con- 

 clusion Dr Darwin arrived at was erroneous, 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 knowledge of each other's notes, 

 since our domestic fowls, in many instances, are certainly en- 

 abled, 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 per- 

 form their various aerial evolutions, that they comprehend one 

 general signal. All that is meant to be insisted upon is, that 

 the notes pecuhar to every species, in a state of nature, are in- 

 stinctive. This I have endeavoured to prove, in an essay read 

 before the Society in 1822, and printed in the fourth volume of 

 the new series of Memoirs, by shewing, that even such indi- 

 viduals as are brought up in situations where they have no op- 

 portunity of being instructed in their appropriate notes, do, 

 nevertheless, utter them naturally. 



The pairing of wild birds, and the period at which they pre- 

 pare to perpetuate their species, are determined, according to 

 Dr Darwin, by the acquired knowledge, that their joint labour 

 is necessary to procure sustenance for a numerous progeny, and 

 that the mild temperature of the atmosphere in spring is suit- 

 able for hatching their eggs, and for producing a plentiful sup- 

 ply of that nourishment which is wanted for their young. This 

 opinion he attempts to support by the fact, that poultry, which 

 have an' abundance of food throughout the year, and are pro- 

 tected from the inclemency of the weather, lay their eggs at any 

 season, and never pair. But it should be recollected, that this 

 is not the case with pigeons placed under similar circumstances, 

 which do pair, though they produce only two young ones at a 

 time ; and that the pheasant among our naturalized, and the 

 black grouse among our native, birds, though they have both 



* 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 deli- 

 cacy, which the gallant chanticleer suffers them to take, even out of his beak, 

 without the least molestation. 



