SONGS. 261 



the hens of every species of birds they take, being 

 incapable of singing*." 



Buffon makes the qualified statement that *' the 

 females are much more silent than the males, song 

 being generally withheld from themt;" probably 

 resting on the authority of Lord Bacon, who says 

 " that cock birds, among singing birds, are ever the 

 better singers J." The latter again most likely fol- 

 lowed Aristotle, who says, "some males sing like 

 their females, as appears among nightingales, but the 

 i'emale gives over song when she hatches ." Daines 

 Barring-ton, assuming it as a fact that females never 

 sing, proceeds to divine the reason thereof, inferring 

 it to be because it might betray their nest should 

 they sing while sitting on their eggs||. But before 

 drawing such a conclusion, it would have been well 

 to make sure of the fact. It is certainly true as a 

 general position, that female birds do not sing ; yet 

 many exceptions have been recorded. We possess, 

 at present, in the same aviary with two green-birds 

 and an aberdevine (Carduelis spinus), a female canary 

 who sings a great deal. Her notes indeed are harsh 

 and unmusical, but are both loud and uttered in a 

 full arid sustained tone of voice, though altogether 

 unlike the notes either of the male canary or of any 

 other bird with which we are acquainted. It is no 

 less worthy of remark that this female canary is 

 never excited to rivalry by the songs of a number of 

 other birds in the same apartment, as the cocks of 

 every species commonly are ; for she usually remains 

 silent during the attempts of the others to sing each 

 other down, and prefers singing at night when the 

 others are for the most part silent. We have also're- 



* Brit. Zool. ii. 335. t Oiseaux, Intr. 



I Sylva Sylvarum, p. 56, ed. fol. 1664. 

 Hist. Anim. iv. 9. II Phil. Trans. Ixii. 



