includifig an hiquiry 'whether or not they are instinctive. 19 



It is well known to most persons who have the care and 

 management of poultry, that ducks, guinea fowls, &c., hatched 

 under the domestic hen, and domestic fowls hatched under 

 turkeys, have the calls and habits peculiar to their species : 

 that this is the case also with pheasants and partridges, brought 

 up under similar circumstances, I have had frequent oppor- 

 tunities of observing. It is a matter of universal notoriety 

 likewise, that all cuckoos of the species Canoriis, though 

 hatched and reared by birds of various descriptions, have con- 

 stantly their proper calls *. These facts one would suppose 

 were quite sufficient to convince the most prejudiced, that 

 birds do not always acquire the calls and notes of those under 

 which they are bred. But, perhaps, it may be urged, that 

 ducks, guinea fowls, pheasants, and partridges, are probably 

 incapable of learning the calls of domestic fowls ; that domes- 

 tic fowls, in their turn, may be incapable of acquiring the call 

 of the turkey ; and that the cuckoo appears to be very poorly 

 qualified for imitating the notes of its foster parents. Still I must 

 contend, that the incapacity of these birds has never been 

 proved ; and even if it had, it would afford no explanation of 

 the manner in which they become acquainted with their own 

 respective calls. According to Mr. Barrington's theory they 

 ought to be mute; or, at least, should have such notes only 

 as they have been able to pick up casually ; which, of course, 

 would possess little or no resemblance. 



From these and similar observations, I have long been 

 thoroughly convinced myself, that the calls of birds, which 

 seem to be the simplest expressions of their sensations, are 

 natural, not acquired ; and in order to determine whether this 

 is the case with their songs also, which are generally much 

 more complex, and, consequently, have the appearance of be- 

 ing more artificial, the following experiments were made. 



In the summer of the present year, (1822,) I procured three 



* Mr. Barringtoii will not allow that the well-known cry of the cuckoo 

 is a song, because it does not happen to accord with the conditions of his 

 arbitrary definition ; though, to the bird, it answers every purpose of a 

 song, as well as the more elaborate effusions of the nightingale and skylark. 

 Mr. Barrington defines a bird's ' song ' to be a succession of three or more 

 different notes, which are continued without interruption, during the same 

 interval with a musical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement, or 

 whilst a pendulum swings four seconds; which necessarily excludes the 

 chaffinch, redstart, hedge warbler, willow wren, and some others, that have 

 always been accounted birds of song, as well as the cuckoo, from any pre- 

 tensions to the title. Perhaps it would be more natural, and certainly less 

 exclusive, to apply the term * song ' to those notes that are peculiar to the 

 males ; yet this definition would admit the peacock and turkey into the 

 catalogue of singing birds ; and the hideous scream of the one, and the lu- 

 dicrous gobble of the other, are certainlv any thing but musical. 



C 2 young 



