including an Inquiry 'whether or not they are instinctive. 1 7 



sixty-third volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society. 

 And as the experiments there detailed appear to be imperfect 

 and unsatisfactory, and the conclusions drawn from them 

 hasty, unwarranted, and contrary to common experience ; and, 

 more especially, as this author is generally referred to by our 

 cyclopaedists*, and as his opinions seem to be finding their 

 way into modern works of respectability, where they are quoted 

 as established facts that do not admit of a doubt f ; it was 

 thought that an examination of his method of investigation 

 would be useful in exposing its insufficiency, and the conse- 

 quent looseness of the arguments founded upon it ; while the 

 institution of a less exceptionable course of experiments, it 

 was hoped, might dissipate much of the obscurity in which 

 this intricate question is at present involved. In what degree 

 these expectations have been realized remains to be shown. 



Mr. Barrington informs us, that his experiments were prin- 

 cipally made with young linnets which were fledged, and nearly 

 able to leave the nest; and the reasons assigned for this se- 

 lection are, that birds of this species are docile, and possess 

 great powers of imitation, and that the cocks are easily distin- 

 guished from the hens at an early period. These nestling 

 linnets were educated under singing birds of various kinds ; 

 and it appears, that instead of the linnet's notes, they learned 

 those of their respective instructors, to which they adhered 

 almost entirely. In some instances, to be sure, the nestlings re- 

 tained the call of their own species ; which, as they were three 

 weeks old when taken from the nest, it is supposed they had 

 learned from their parents ; and not unfrequently, when they 

 had opportunities of hearing several species,- they borrowed 

 from more than one, and their songs became mixed J. 



To be certain that nestlings will not have even the calls of 

 their species, Mr. Barrington remarks, that they should be 

 taken when only a few days old. He then proceeds to notice 

 instances of a linnet and a goldfinch taken at this early period, 

 that came under his observation ; acknowledging, at the same 

 time, his own inability to rear birds of so tender an age. The 



• See the Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. Singing; and Rees's Cyclopaedia, 

 art. Song. f becBingley's Animal Biography, vol. ii. p. 166—7. 



^ The reason given by Mr. Barrington for the steady adherence of birds 

 in a wild state to their own songs, is, that they attend to the instructions 

 of the parent birds only, disregarding the notes of all others. That joung 

 birds receive instructions in singing from the old ones appears to be u 

 notion of great antiquity. Vide Aristot. Hlstor. Animal, lib. iv. cap. ix. — 

 Plinii Ilistor. Natural, lib. x. cap. xxix. The celebrated Count Buflbii 

 seems to have entertained a similar opinion. See his Hisloire Nattirclle 

 des ()iseau.r. Tome cinquieme, p. 47. Darwin also, in his Zoonomia, 

 vol. i. p. l.'Jo, lends it the sanction of his authority'. 



Vol. 6"G. No..S27. .hilij 182r>. ' C first, 



