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PERCHING BIRDS. 13 
and seems as if composed of imitations of various birds. 
I cannot, however, agree with those who consider this 
species and the whitethroat as mocking birds. Although 
undoubtedly the notes of the skylark and the swallow 
may easily be recognised, and especially those of the 
house sparrow, yet why should it be supposed that these 
are merely imitations? Such an idea has not much 
show of reason in it, for the house sparrow is one of the 
last birds whose note is likely to be heard by the sedge 
warbler. I have met with a passage in Mr. Rennie’s 
Habits of Birds, which I think places the matter in 
so clear a light that I am tempted to quote it. He 
says: “ Amongst some hundreds of these birds which 
we have listened to in the most varied situations in the 
three kingdoms, all seemed to have very nearly the same 
notes, repeated in the same order ; a fact which appears 
to us to be fatal to the inference of the notes being 
derived nut from one, but a number of other birds. For 
if this were so it is not possible that these imitated notes 
should all follow exactly, or very nearly, the same order 
in the song of each individual imitator in different and 
distant parts of the country. The close similarity of the 
notes to those alleged t> be imitated cannot be denied, 
but, taking all the circumstances into account, we think 
it much more probable that these resembling notes are 
original to the sedge bird, and that we might with 
equal justice accuse the swallow and the skylark of bor- 
rowing from it.” 
The above exactly corresponds with my own expe- 
rience. I have heard the same series of notes continually 
occur, and this repetition of the strain has been 
always rendered the more noticeable by the harsh 
chirrup of the house sparrow occurring at intervals 
