176 Habit and Instinct. 



•whose song is as wonderful as ever. Sometimes a grating 

 outburst like that of a sedge-warbler ; sometimes a long- 

 drawn sweet note like a nightingale's. Then I have within 

 the last few minutes certainly heard the chaffinch imitated, 

 and even the nuthatch's metallic note. But a low pleasing 

 soliloquy also goes on at intervals. Ah ! there is the great 

 tit ; now the white wagtail, and I am beginning to get 

 bewildered. This bird creeps about a good deal in the 

 bushes, but now and then appears on a topmost shoot, 

 and sits there singing with his bill wide open, and a 

 red-yellow ' gape ' showing very plainly. Now and then he 

 flies into a tree over my head. Ah ! there is the call of the 

 redstart, and surely this is the skylark's song ; and there 

 is the chaffinch again, if ever I heard a chaffinch." * 



Mere mention of the specially taught imitations of the 

 parrot, magpie, raven, jackdaw, starling, and other birds 

 must suffice. In all these birds there would seem to be an 

 innate proclivity to copy the sounds they constantly hear, 

 though it varies a good deal in different individuals. A 

 short description of the teaching of bullfinches will serve 

 to illustrate the most favourable conditions for imitation 

 in this case. 



"In Germany," f says Bechstein, "those young bull- 

 finches that are to be taught to sing particular tunes must 

 be taken from the nest when the feathers of the tail begin 

 to grow, and must be fed only on rape seed soaked in water, 

 and mixed with white bread. Although they do not warble 

 before they can feed themselves, it is not necessary to wait 

 for this to begin their instruction, for it will succeed better, 

 if we may say so, when infused with their food, since 

 experience proves that they learn those airs more quickly, 



* Mr. C. A. Witchell has given a great deal of evidence on the subject of 

 imitation among wild birds in chap ix. of his " Evolution of Bird Song," 

 p. 159. 



t Quoted in Yarrell's " British Birds," 2nd edit. vol. i. pp. 577, 578. 



