SONGS, 281 



with them before they can provide for themselves, and 

 that afterwards they frequent the same places as the 

 rest of their kind ; but, unfortunately for this explana- 

 tion, the fact is that song-birds for the most part be- 

 come silent after their young- are hatched. Neither is 

 it true, that song-birds associate exclusively with their 

 own species, and, although they did, it would not 

 follow that they never hear other birds. How then 

 does it happen, since they are, by the theory, so prone 

 to imitation, that they never in a wild state inter- 

 mingle the notes of others with those peculiar to their 

 own species ? Upon the principles of the theory 

 every bird ought to be a polyglot. 



We have in many instances verified the experi- 

 ments of Barrington on caged birds, most of which 

 when young will readily learn the notes of the birds 

 in the same room. We have, for example, at present, 

 a young cock green-bird (Fringilla chloris, TEM- 

 MINCK), which from hearing the call of the sparrows 

 out of doors has acquired it perfectly, and from 

 hanging near a black-cap, he has also learned many 

 of its notes, though he executes them indifferently, 

 perhaps from deficiency of voice. He has more re- 

 cently attempted some of the notes of a robin whose 

 cage hangs under his. Yet notwithstanding that he 

 has thus learned part of the notes of three or four 

 different birds, he can also utter the peculiar call-note 

 of his own species, though we are pretty certain he has 

 not heard it uttered since he left his parents' nest when 

 only a few days old. But no wild green-bird ever 

 learns in this manner the notes of various species, 

 nor would our bird, we are well convinced, had he 

 not been kept stationary in the cage, and conse- 

 quently had the notes he has learned daily sounding in 

 his ears, till he could not forget them. In a wild 

 state, he would either have kept at a distance from 

 other species, or would not have attended to them ; 



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