44 BIRD-SONGS. 



slight and rather characterless thing, nowise 

 remarkable. But coming down Mount Willard 

 one day in June, I heard a warbler's song which 

 brought me to a sudden halt. It was new and 

 beautiful, — more beautiful, it seemed at the 

 moment, than any warbler's song I had ever 

 heard. What could it be ? A little patient 

 waiting (while the black-flies and mosquitoes 

 " came upon me to eat up my flesh"), and the 

 wonderful stranger appeared in full view, — my 

 old acquaintance, the yellow-rumped warbler. 



With all this strong tendency on the part of 

 birds to vary their music, how is it that there 

 is still such a degree of uniformity, so that, as 

 we have said, every species may be recognized 

 by its notes ? Why does every red-eyed vireo 

 sing in one way, and every white-eyed vireo in 

 another ? Who teaches the young chipper to 

 trill, and the young linnet to warble ? In short, 

 how do birds come by their music ? Is it all a 

 matter of instinct, inherited habit, or do they 

 learn it ? The answer appears to be that birds 

 sing as children talk, by simple imitation. No- 

 body imagines that the infant is born with a 

 language printed upon his brain. The father 

 and mother may never have known a word of 

 any tongue except the English, but if the child 

 is brought up to hear only Chinese, he will 

 infallibly speak that, and nothing else. And 



