182 CHAFF INCHES. 



tlie British singing birds, or birds of flight, is a very probable 

 one, since the matter of food is a great regulator of the 

 actions and proceedings of the brute creation : there is but 

 one that can be set in competition with it, and that is love. 

 But I cannot quite acquiesce with you in one circumstance, 



they have taught to pipe, must have instructed them more by -whistling to 

 them, than by an organ ; and that their instructions have been accompanied by 

 a motion of the head and body in accordance with the time ; which habit the 

 birds also acquire, and is no doubt of great use to them in regulating their 

 song. The canary-bird, whose song, in its artificial state in Europe, is a 

 compound of notes acquired from other birds, is able to learn the song 

 of the nightingale, but not to execute it with the same power as the nightingale 

 itself. I have never heard one that sang it quite correctly, but I have 

 heard it approach quite enough to prove that with more careful education 

 it might learn it right. Those who have taken the most pains about it 

 have been contented with placing, under nightingales, young canaries, as 

 soon as they could feed themselves ; but such will necessarily have learned 

 part at least of their parents' song. The linnet and linnet mule is said 

 to be able to come nearer the execution of the nightingale, when properly 

 instructed. The best way would be to use an experienced hen canary-bird 

 who will rear her young without the cock, and to take the cock away before 

 the young are hatched : or to set the canary-eggs under a hen paired with a 

 goldfinch, which, kept in a darkish situation, will probably not sing ; to remove 

 the cock, at all events, if it sings, as soon as possible ; to place the young birds 

 very close to the singing nightingale, and as soon as practicable to remove the 

 hen canary also. The rearing of a canary-bird hy hand, even from the egg, has 

 been accomplished by artificial heat and unremitting care. Birds learn the 

 song of others most readily when they are not in song themselves, and when 

 they are darkened and covered, so that their attention is not distracted ; for 

 birds are amused by what they see as much as we are, when not akrmed by it, 

 I had once a tame whitethroat which, when let out of its cage, appeared to take 

 the greatest pleasure in minutely examining the. figured patterns of the chair- 

 covers, perliaps expecting to find something eatable amongst the leaves and 

 branches of the pattern. I reared a blackcap and some whitethroats, taken 

 when a fortnight old, under a singing nightingale, and removed all othei 

 singing birds : they did not, however, learn a single note from the nightingale, 

 but sang their wild note pretty truly ; on the other hand, a blackcap two years 

 old, from hearing a nightingale sing a great deal, acquired two passages from 

 its song and executed them correctly, though not very powerfully. I under- 

 stand that the robin reared in a cage is not observed to learn from other birds, 

 but sings the wild note pretty accurately. I can at present suggest no key to 

 these diversities; nor do I understand why the young nightingale, taken when 

 the old birds cease to sing, will in confinement learn the note of other birds 

 and retain them, although it may hear its own species sing again as soon as they 

 recommence in the autumn ; and yet, at liberty, with the same cessation of the 

 parental song, it would have learned nothing else ; unless it be that from want 

 of other amusement it listens more when it is confined. — W. H 



