Notes of Birds. 313 
redbreast, had any such previously existed:* 
its habits also were as decidedly characteristic 
as its notes, and I am the more particular in 
noticing this latter circumstance, because 
the peculiar habits of birds are quite as dif- 
ficult to account for as the origin of their 
songs.t ‘Thus, it appears from this satisfac- 
tory experiment, which was conducted with 
the utmost care, that, contrary to Mr. Bar- 
rington’s opinion, the notes of birds, which 
probably consist of those sounds that their 
vocal organs are best adapted to produce, 
are perfectly innate. 
* Montagu, in the introduction to his Ornithological Dictionary, p. 29, 
states, in anote, that “a goldfinchyhatehed and fostered by a chaffinch, 
retained its, native notes,’ but does not give any further particulars 
respecting this bird, 
+ Several birds sing inthe night, and some warbleas they fly. The 
titlark uses particular notes in ascending and descending, and the song 
of the white-throat is accompanied with strange gesticulations. Larks 
and wagtails run; finches and buntings hop; nearly the whole of the 
gallinaceous and pie tribes, and many speciesof waterfowl walk; and 
woodpeckers climb, Thesparrow, skylark, and most of the galline 
are pulveratrices ; and the kestril is, I believe, the only British hawk that 
hovers. The peculiar modes of flight and nidification are equally re- 
markable aud worthy of notice, but, as they are foreign to the present 
subject, I shall not now dilate upon them. 
{ Since writing the above, I have met with the following general 
assertion, unaccompanied by any evidence in support of it, in the Phy- 
siognomical System of Drs, Gall and Spurzheim; by J. G. Spurzheim, 
M.D. Second edition, p. 194---5. Singing birds, moreover, which 
have been hatched by strange females, sing naturally, and without any 
Rr 
