INTRODUCTION 17 



in which the female bird sings as well as the male 

 are given in future pages of the present work. The 

 various call-notes of birds are equally worthy of 

 study ; they will be found described under the 

 several species, and should on- no account be ignored, 

 as they are, to say the least, valuable aids to the 

 identification of the birds themselves. 



Do birds sing by Instinct or by Imitation ? It is 

 a very popular belief that birds are hatched with an 

 inherited ability to sing like their parents ; that 

 when the proper season arrives these young birds 

 without tuition or experience warble off the song 

 characteristic of their species. This is an utterly 

 erroneous assumption not supported by a scrap of 

 direct evidence. Daines Barrington, no mean 

 authority although an old one, writes : " notes in 

 birds are no more innate than language is in man, 

 and depend entirely on the master under which they 

 are bred, as far as their organs will enable them to 

 imitate the sounds which they have frequent oppor- 

 tunities of hearing." He further tells us that he 

 has " educated nestling Linnets under the three 

 best singing Larks — the Sky- Lark, Wood- Lark, and 

 Titlark, every one of which, instead of the Linnet's 

 song, adhered entirely to that of their respective 

 instructors. When the note of the Tidark Linnet 

 was thoroughly fixed, I hung the bird in a room" 

 with two common Linnets for a quarter of a year, 



which were full in song ; the Titlark Linnet, how- 



c 



