66 INTRODUCTION. 



in many instances, the notes of Birds are copied, are imita" 

 lions, that some will be found nevertheless not so : but here 

 too a knowledge of more observed facts is wanted. 



Mr. Barrington asserts, somewhat paradoxically, it 

 appears to me, that the inhabitants of London are better 

 judges of the songs of Birds than the inhabitants of the 

 country. There are ftctrf observers doubtless to be found in 

 town as well as in the country ; but a good observer living 

 in the country must be necessarily, from the opportunities 

 which he possesses, a better judge than one of equal abi- 

 lity in town : fur the knowledge acquired of Birds in con^ 

 fiuement cannot be estimated so highly as that obtained of 

 them in their natural state: as it can never be, with any 

 certainty, more than a knowledge of domesticated Birds. 



Again, Mr. , Barrington, speaking of the song of the 

 Nightingale, says, " that, although it sings by day, the song 

 is then confounded with that of other birds." Now, so far 

 from this being the case, if there be any bird of song whose 

 notes are distinguishable from other Birds when many Birds 

 sing together, the Nightingale is that Bird : his full and so- 

 norous modulations being most readily distinguished from 

 the song of every other Bird.* 



Birds, when in their natural state, sing only in 

 the spring, (I speak of course of the Birds of the 

 temperate regions of the globe; tiieir habits in the 

 torrid zone are doubtless considerably different;) to this' 

 there are, ip this country, a few exceptions. The Red- 

 breast sings at almost every season of the year except in 

 severe frost. The Thrush too, sings during a much greater 

 portion of the year than the Blackbird. The Thrush in- 

 deed will be found to sing occasionally, in favourable situ- 



* " II efface par I'^clat de son chant celai de tons les plu- 

 mages."— St. Pierre, see the note on the Nightingale, iu Part I. 



