228 NATURAL HISTORY 



always mentioned as rarities, and somewhat out of the 

 common course of things : but as to redwings and field- 

 fares, no sportsman or naturalist has ever yet, that I 

 could hear, pretended to have found the nest or young 

 of those species in any part of these kingdoms. And I 

 the more admire at this instance as extraordinary, since, 

 to all appearance, the same food in summer as well as 

 in winter might support them here which maintains 

 their congeners, the blackbirds and thrushes, did they 

 choose to stay the summer through. From hence it 

 appears that it is not food alone which determines 

 some species of birds with regard to their stay or 

 departure. Fieldfares and redwings disappear sooner 

 or later according as the warm weather comes on earlier 

 or later. For I well remember, after that dreadful 

 winter, 1739-40, that cold north-east winds continued 



bably not sing ; to remove the cock, at all events, if it sings, as soon as 

 possible ; to place the young birds very close to the singing nightingale, 

 and as soon as practicable to remove the hen canary also. The rearing 

 of a canary-bird by hand, even from the egg, has been accomplished by 

 artificial heat and unremitting care. Birds learn the song of others most 

 readily when they are not in song themselves, and when they are dark- 

 ened and covered, so that their attention is not distracted : for birds are 

 amused by what they see as much as we are, when not alarmed by it. I 

 had once a tame whitethroat which, when let out of its cage, appeared to 

 take the greatest pleasure in minutely examining the figured patterns of 

 the chair-covers, perhaps expecting to find something eatable amongst 

 the leaves and branches of the pattern. I reared a blackcap and some 

 whitethroats, taken when a fortnight old, under a singing nightingale, 

 and removed all other singing birds : they did not, however, learn a 

 single note from the nightingale, but sang their wild note pretty truly; 

 on the other hand, a blackcap two years old, from hearing a nightingale 

 sing a great deal, acquired two passages from its song and executed them 

 correctly, though not very powerfully. I understand that the robin reared 

 in a cage is not observed to learn from other birds, but sings the wild 

 note pretty accurately. I can at present suggest no key to these diversi- 

 ties ; nor do I understand why the young nightingale, taken when the 

 old birds cease to sing, will in confinement learn the note of other birds 

 and retain them, although it may hear its own species sing again as soon 

 as they recommence in the autumn ; and yet, at liberty, with the same 

 cessation of the parental song, it would have learned nothing else ; unless 

 it be that from want of other amusement it listens more when it is 

 confined. W. H. 



