MIMICR V OF FINCHES 169 



the nightingale, in confinement, to learn from other 

 species {^Dom. Hab. of Birds, p. 277). I have heard 

 only one wild greenfinch imitate, and that one 

 reproduced the fink and tzvit of the chaffinch ; but 

 in confinement the bird will repeat "the song of 

 any fellow-captive" (Yarrell, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 106) ; 

 and Bechstein said that it could be taught to repeat 

 words {pp. cit. p. 99). Rennie had a young male 

 greenfinch which, in his opinion, from hearing the 

 " call " of the sparrows out of doors, had acquired 

 it perfectly ; and, from hanging near a blackcap 

 had also learned many of this bird's notes, though 

 it executed them indifferently, perhaps from de- 

 ficiency of voice. " Yet notwithstanding that he . 

 has thus learned part of the notes of three or four 

 different birds, he can also utter the peculiar call-note 

 of his own species, though we are pretty certain he 

 has not heard it since he left his parents' nest, when 

 only a few days old" {pp. cit. p. 281). Barrington 

 took a common sparrow from the nest, when it was 

 fledged, and educated it under a linnet ; the bird, how- 

 ever, by accident, heard a goldfinch also, and his song 

 was therefore a mixture of those of the linnet and 

 goldfinch {pp. cit. p. 275). Mr. A. Holte Macpherson 

 informs me of a sparrow in the possession of Canon 

 which was taken when quite young from a 



