SONGS. 279 



the greatest pleasure in minutely examining the 

 figured patterns of the chair-covers, perhaps expect- 

 ing to find something eatable among the leaves of 

 the pattern. I reared a black-cap and some white- 

 throats, taken when a fortnight old, under a singing 

 nightingale, and removed all other singing birds, but 

 they sung their wild notes pretty truly ; on the other 

 hand, a black-cap, two years old, from hearing a 

 nightingale sing a great deal, acquired two passages 

 from its song, and executed them correctly, though 

 not very powerfully. I understand that the robin, 

 reared in a cage, is not observed to learn from other 

 birds, but sings the wild note pretty accurately. I 

 can at present suggest no key to these diversities ; 

 nor do I understand why the young nightingale, 

 taken when the old birds cease to sing, will, in con- 

 finement, learn the note of other birds, and retain 

 them, although it may hear its own species sing 

 again as soon as they recommence in the autumn ; 

 and yet, at liberty, with the same cessation of the 

 parental song, it would have learned nothing else ; 

 unless it be that from want of other amusement, it 

 listens more when it is confined*." 



But though we were to grant all the facts stated 

 by these authors to be rigidly correct, we should 

 not be disposed to adopt their conclusion, which 

 is plainly opposed by other facts within the power 

 of every observer to verify. We do not, however, 

 believe Kircher's story of nestling birds hatched un- 

 der other birds never attempting to sing, any more 

 than we should believe that a human infant in like 

 mariner deprived of the care of its own species 

 would speak Hebrew or high Dutch. " A sky- 

 lark," it has been stated, *' was taken from the nest 

 before it was fledged and reared by the hand in town, 



* Notes to White's Selborne, edit. 8vo. 1832. 



