io5 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



in the flower-garden at Lilford a male Redbreast 

 which had somewhere picked up a song entirely 

 unlike his natural sweet but melancholy strain, 

 which he seemed to have entirely lost. I am no 

 musician, and cannot attempt to describe this ac- 

 quisition ; it was loud, short, but not very sweet, 

 and had I not repeatedly seen the bird in the act 

 of giving utterance to it, I should, I think, have 

 attributed it to some escaped foreign Finch or 

 other hard-billed bird." Many times have I heard 

 various well-known and common birds utter 

 snatches of song totally different from their usual 

 melody, and even more frequently have I remarked 

 variations in their notes, which have never been 

 repeated in my hearing. In Algeria I was especi- 

 ally impressed by the remarkable difference between 

 the notes of individuals of various species there and 

 in England. Captain S. G. Reid has remarked, 

 that the Chiffchaffs which are resident in the 

 Canary Islands have acquired a much longer and 

 more desultory song. It may therefore be inferred 

 that there is much less stability in song than is 

 very generally supposed. To my mind Variation 

 seems to imply Selection, or at least the strong 

 possibility of it, and that the secondary sexual 

 character of song may at least have been en- 



