CHAPTER VI 



NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH 

 BIRD-SONG 



I. Songs are generally uttered by male birds only. 

 Females which sing are generally mentioned by 

 authors as exceptions to this rule : such are the 

 female great grey shrike and the female Lapland 

 bunting. The female starling sings : I have often 

 observed a pair warbling together near their nest. 

 Bechstein observed that nightingales, when courting 

 each other, " utter a gentle subdued warbling." 

 Gilbert White noticed that while the quack of the 

 common duck is loud and sonorous, the voice of the 

 drake is scarcely discernible (^Nat. Hist. Selborne, p. 

 1 1 6). Rennie recorded the singing of females of 

 the following : redstart, blackbird, willow-warbler, 

 and bullfinch {Domestic Hab. BirdSy p. 262) ; and 

 he observed that the songs of the females are 



