XIII 



INSTINCT AND REASON 331 



A. G. Butler 1 took a Skylark from the nest which 

 "sang its own wild song, but introduced into it the 

 song of the Persian Bulbul." l< Chaffinches," he says, 

 " unless absolutely isolated, readily pick up the wild 

 song, but if kept in the same room with Canaries, their 

 song is lengthened (and thus improved), though not 

 altered in character." A Missel Thrush which he 

 reared sang only two notes. A Blackbird sang the 

 first line of "Villikins and his Dinah, and another 

 the first line of a Psalm tune." A Cock Starling 

 li sang a jumble of sounds mixed with the guttural 

 call-note of the Missel Thrush." In fact a bird, if 

 isolated, sings his own song, if any ; as a rule the 

 power that is in him requires awakening. If he 

 hears one of his own species carolling, he is very 

 soon able to imitate it. 2 If he hears only other birds, 

 he no doubt learns to imitate them, but the process is 

 a comparatively long one, and often the foreign notes 

 are only an addition to his own proper song, which 

 can still be clearly made out. Many of the tame 

 Thrushes in bird-fanciers' shops have been taken 

 early from the nest, and they sing the Thrush's 

 song. Sometimes they may have heard no bird 

 sing, in which case their music must be due to pure 

 instinct, or they may have heard the songs of many 

 birds and singled out that of their own species. The 

 Cuckoo is not taught by his sire. If instinct does 

 not teach him, how does he know the one cry amid 



1 " The Songs of Birds reared from the Nest : ' in the Zoologist 

 for 1892, p. 30. 



2 Romanes {Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 227) says, 

 " The singing of birds is certainly instinctive," 



