PHILOSOPHY 01 /OOLOGY. 



a wood-lark linnet, (a linnet with die song of the wood-lark,) 

 which was full in song, and hung very near to him for a 

 month together ; after which, the robin was removed to 

 another house, where he could only hear a sky-lark linnet. 

 The consequence was, that the nestling did not sing a note 

 of woodlark, (though I afterwards hung him again just 

 above the wood-lark linnet,) but adhered entirely to the 

 song of the sky-lark linnet." 



If birds thus acquire so easily, in a state of confinement, 

 the song of others, how comes it to pass that, in a wild slate, 

 each individual acquires only the notes of its own species ? 

 Even in a state of confinement, young birds imitate the notes 

 of those of their own species more readily than those of any 

 other bird. The same observer, to whom we have already 

 alluded, says, " Young Canary birds are frequently reared 

 in a room where there are many other sorts ; and yet I 

 have been informed that they only learn the song of the 

 parent cock." Even in a wild state, although the twite 

 and linnet fly in company, " yet these two species of birds 

 never learn each other's notes." The same may be said 

 of many other birds which live in the same place, and 

 nestle in the same hedge. These circumstances probably 

 arise from the structure of the organs of each species 

 enabling them more easily to produce the notes of their 

 own species than those of any other, and from the 

 notes of their own species being more agreeable to their 

 ears. These conditions, joined to the facility of hear- 

 ing the song of their own species, in consequence of fre- 

 quenting the same places, determine the character of the 

 acquired language of the feathered tribes. We are even 

 disposed to conclude, that an individual untutored, and 

 without an example to imitate, would, if associated with a 

 mate in the breeding season, acquire, by its own effort-. 

 notes nearly similar to those of its parent. This is. indeed, 

 partly proven by the song of solitary bird*, in certain < 



