THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 201 



Brehm, too, the stone thrush and blackbird are talking 

 birds as well, though Buss questions this. Beckstein 

 has shown by experiment that the stone thrush can 

 be taught to whistle melodies. The natural song of the 

 starling consists in complicated "fluting, piping, twit- 

 tering, and chuckling sounds." * But they copy the 

 songs of other birds, cock crows, hen cackles, door creak- 

 ing, etc., and have been known to attempt human 

 speech. The older writers have no doubt exaggerated 

 this capacity, but the following testimony will show 

 how far the starling can be educated. K. Dittman 

 writes of the learned starling owned by the master 

 shoemaker G. Dom: " The bird learned with surpris- 

 ing ease to whistle the ' Call of the Fire Brigade ' and 

 other tunes. His name was Hans, and his master would 

 call out often during a lesson, ' Careful, Hans, careful '; 

 he quickly learned this and pronounced the words with 

 perfect ease, proving his ability to talk as well as catch 

 a tune. It was very comical to see him stand among 

 the cobblers and call out, 'Hurrah for Bismarck!' or 

 cry ' Pickpocket ! ' when any one came in the door." 

 Another starling could say all the following: "Have 

 you heard the news? My, but it's good! Good morn- 

 ing; are you up already? What do you know that's 

 nice? How is the Kaiser getting on? And what's the 

 matter with Bismarck? God bless you! Are you there? 

 Take a seat; are you a fool? Yes, yes! " f But the 

 Asiatic magpie is the most talented of all the starlings, 

 and claims among its connections some of the very finest 

 singers. X 



Passing by many other imitative birds, I turn now to 



* Russ, Allerlei sprechendes gefiedertes Volk, p. 138. 

 f Ibid., p. 145. X Ibid., p. 160. 



