i66 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG 



is almost the rival of the mocking-bird {ibid. vol. i. 

 p. 243). The story of a blackbird imitating the crow- 

 ing of a cock has often been repeated, and probably 

 owes its notoriety to the want of observation in 

 writers who mentioned it ; for this bird readily 

 reproduces other cries, although they are usually 

 performed in a faint voice. Rennie has quoted 

 Kircher's assertion that the young nightingales which 

 are hatched under other species never sing till they 

 are instructed by other nightingales {Musitrgia^ cap. 

 de Lusciniis : Domestic Habits of Birds, p. 277) ; and 

 he has quoted the Rev. W. Herbert from White's 

 Selborne (8vo, 1832) as follows: — "The nightingale 

 is peculiarly apt, in its first year, when confined, to 

 learn the song of any other bird that it hears. Its 

 beautiful song is the result of long attention to the 

 melody of other birds of its species"; and (p. 278) 

 that the nightingale, when young, " will learn the 

 notes of other birds, and retain them after it has 

 heard its own species again." The Hon. Daines 

 Harrington found the young robin equally imitative. 

 " I educated a young robin under a very fine nightin- 

 gale, which, however, began already to be out of song, 

 and was perfectly mute in less than a fortnight 

 This robin always sang three parts in four nightin- 

 gale. I hung this robin nearer to the nightingale 



