SoiVGS AND Call Notes. 173 



alarm notes, and I have known the members of some 

 species even sing with food in their bills, but I doubt 

 very nuich whether a Lesser Black-Back could accom- 

 plish anything in this way. 



In considering the songs and call notes of birds, 

 the question arises as to how young ones learn those 

 of their own species. Experiments have proved that 

 some inherit them from their parents, whilst others 

 learn by imitating them. It was at one time thought 

 that if the eggs of the common fowl were taken 

 to some remote isLmd and hatched out l)y artificial 

 warmth, the young cockerels would not know 

 how to crow if they never heard a rooster's cheer- 

 ing note, but the birds soon proved that theory to 

 be wrong bv crowing as lustily as any mainland 

 members of their kind. The same sort of experi- 

 ment tried upon puppies taken from their mothers 

 directly they were born proved that they knew 

 how to bark like their kind, the sound of whose 

 voices they had never heard. 



Most birds have a baby language of their own 

 which is not used after they grow up. In this 

 language they make known their wants, fears, and 

 Avhereabouts to their parents, and it is surprising- 

 how far off the apparently weak voice of a tiny 

 Grouse or Curlew can be heard. Of course, there 

 are exceptions to the use of a special language for 

 babv birds. The youns: Peewit, for instance, uses 

 the same note as its parents, oidy, of course, in a 

 lower and weaker form, and so do young Rooks. 



