306 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



for, about Selborne wood, he found they were mostly 

 in D ; he heard two sing together, the one in D, and 

 the other in D sharp, which made a disagreeable 

 concert ; he afterwards heard one in D sharp, and 

 about Wolmer Forest, some in C. As to nightin- 

 gales, he says that their notes are so short, and their 

 transitions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain 

 their key. Perhaps in a cage or in a room their notes 

 may be more distinguishable. This person has tried 

 to settle the notes of a swift, and of several other 

 small birds, but cannot bring them to any crite- 

 rion*." 



It is singular that scarcely any large bird is known 

 to sing, though the crowing of the cock in the morning 

 may perhaps, without much impropriety, be called 

 singing. We have also observed that the crow (Cor- 

 vus comix) is sometimes heard in a calm morning to 

 utter a peculiar plaintive note, very different indeed 

 from its usual croaking, and characterized by an 

 ascending minor third, slurred, not staccatoed, like 

 the descending minor third of the cuckoo t. Some 

 are disposed to consider the cawing of rooks a spe- 

 cies of song highly grateful, from its rural associa- 

 tions. " The rook," says Bingley, " has but two or 

 three notes, and when he attempts a solo, we cannot 

 praise his song ; but when he performs in concert, 

 which is his chief delight, these notes, although rough 

 in themselves, being intermixed with those of the 

 multitude, have, as it were, all their rough edges 

 worn off, and become harmonious, especially when 

 softened in the air, where the bird chiefly performs. 

 We have this music in perfection, when the whole 

 colony is raised by the discharge of a gun J." The 

 chanting falcon (Accipiter musicus, DAUDIN), how- 

 ever, is a more decided exception to the general rule, 



# Hist, of Selborne, lett. 45. f J. R 



J Anim. Biogr. ii. 249. 



