166 THE PSYCHICAL KINSHIP 



Like men, birds sing chiefly of love ; but they also 

 sing for pastime or pleasure. Their singing is 

 sweetest during the season of courtship, and attains 

 its highest development in the males. Birds are 

 ardent lovers. To win their brides, the males 

 contend with each other, and display their charms 

 of plumage and song with the wildness of human 

 Romeos. 



The song of birds is generally acquired by in- 

 heritance from the species, but is sometimes bor- 

 rowed by imitation from other birds, or even from 

 other animals. Birds taken from their species 

 when young, before they have heard their native 

 song, sing generally the song of their kind, but it 

 is likely to be interspersed with notes and phrases 

 from the birds around them. Birds thus isolated 

 have been known to adopt entirely the song of 

 their surroundings. Olive Thorne Miller vouches 

 for the fact that an English sparrow she once 

 knew grew up in company with a canary, and 

 came in time to sing the song of its more talented 

 companion to perfection. It must have been a 

 Shakspere of a bird, however, to have soared so 

 high above the excruciating accomplishments of 

 the generality of its species. 



The songs of birds can be set to music just as 

 the melodies of men can. The songs of several 

 birds were published in the American Naturalist a 

 few years ago. And Winchell, the well-known 

 English student of birds, has written a clever 

 book on the ' Cries and Call-notes of Wild Birds,' 

 in which he prints the calls and songs of most of 



