1 70 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG 



nest in a pump and brought up in a cage with 

 canaries, and which sings just like a canary, only 

 better {in litt.). Sterland reared a house-sparrow in 

 a cage adjoining that of a skylark, whose song the 

 sparrow learned, and its owner " often admired its 

 surprising imitation." It would interrupt its song 

 with the ordinary sparrow call-notes {pp. cit. p. 115)- 

 Barrington educated nestling linnets under the three 

 best singing larks — the skylark, woodlark, 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 titlark-linnet was thoroughly 

 fixed, I hung the bird for a quarter of a year in a 

 room with two common linnets which were fully in 

 song. The titlark-linnet, however, did not borrow 

 any passage from the linnet's song, but adhered stead- 

 fastly to that of the titlark " {Domestic Habits of 

 Bii'ds, p. 273). One of his birds learned with equal 

 ease the song of an African ally. " I therefore 

 educated a young linnet under a Vengolina {Linola 

 Angolensis, Brisson), which imitated its African 

 master so exactly, without any mixture of the linnet's 

 song, that it was impossible to distinguish the one 

 from the other. This Vengolina linnet was absolutely 

 perfect, without uttering a single note by which 

 it could have been known to be a linnet. In some 



