including an Inquiry \i:hetlier or not they are Distinctive. 23 



observe, that I have known many instances of birds having 

 nests after they have entirely ceased singing; and that some 

 species (as the woodlai-k, redbreast and wren) sing long after 

 they have done breeding: caged birds also continue in song 

 much longer than birds at large, though they have no mates 

 to solace and amuse; and it is remarkable that almost any 

 kind of continued noise is sufficient to stimulate them to sing. 

 That birds of the same species distinguish each other by their 

 notes, better than by any other circumstance, and that the 

 songs of the males serve to direct the females where to seek 

 their society, as Montagu has suggested, appears to me highly 

 probable ; but I must differ from this ingenious writer when 

 he asserts thatlove is the sole cause of their songs*. In sup- 

 port of this opinion he states, that the males of our warblers, 

 before they pair in spring, sing almost incessantly, and with 

 great vehemence ; that from the time of pairing till the hens 

 begin to sit they are neither so vociferous, nor so frequently 

 heard as before; that during the time of incubation their songs 

 are again loud, but not so reiterated as at the first; and that 

 so soon as the young are excluded from the eggs they cease 

 singing entirely f: but it may be remarked, that if they are 

 not heard so frequently and earnestly after pairing as before, 

 most probably it is because they are occupied in attending 

 to the females ; and I have already observed, that their amatory 

 notes, which tliey chiefly use at this period, are totally dif- 

 ferent from their ordinary songs. When the hens are sitting, 

 or by any accident happen to be separated from their mates, 

 the attention of the latter is much less engi'ossed ; their notes 

 of love are suspended, and their customary strains renewed. 

 It is a very mistaken notion of Montagu, that the songs of 

 these birds cease immediately when their eggs are hatched, 

 as, in numerous instances, it is notorious that they continue 

 even for some time after the young have left the nest. Surely 

 it is needless to insist, that it cannot be love that prompts the 

 young males to attempt their songs so soon as they are known 

 to do :}: : besides, it has been shown, that when educated earfy 

 under other species, they sometimes possess their notes ex- 

 clusively, which would hardly be the case if love is their only 

 motive for singing. 



For the information of those who may wish to be acquainted 

 with the singing birds of this particular neighbourhood, I sub- 

 join the following catalogue. 



* This he does, in effect, in the introduction to his Ornithological Dic- 

 tionary, p. 28, and following. 



t See the introduction to the Ornithological Dictionary, jip. .'50, .Tl. 



i Young birds frequently begin to practise their songs wlicn only a month 

 old. // Cata- 



