SONGS OF TAME BIRDS. 3 



merely to render the larynx pliant, and are a kind of chirping, 

 the notes of which have but little relation to the proper song ; 

 for a slight attention will discover that the larynx becomes 

 gradually capable of giving the common warble. 



This method of recovering the song does not then show 

 deficiency of memory, but rigidity occasioned by the disuse of 

 the larynx. The chaffinch will exercise itself in this way some 

 weeks before it attains its former proficiency, and the nightin- 

 gale practises as long the strains of his beautiful song, before 

 he gives it full, clear, and in all its extent *. 



The strength and compass of a bird's voice depend on the 

 size and proportionate force of the larynx. In the female it is 

 weak and small, and this accounts for her want of song. None 

 of our woodland songsters produces more striking, vigorous, 

 and prolonged sounds than the nightingale ; and none is known 

 with so ample and strong a larynx : but as we are able to im- 

 prove the organisation of the body by exercise and habit, so 

 may we strengthen and extend the larynx of several birds of 

 the same species, so as to amplify the song in consequence, by 

 more nutritive food, proper care, sounds that excite emulation, 

 and the like ; chaffinches, bullfinches, canaries, and other birds 

 reared in the house, furnish daily examples of this. 



I should not omit mentioning here an observation of Mr. 

 Daines Barington t, which tends to prove the possibility of 

 improving the song of wild birds, by rearing linnets, sparrows, 

 and others, near some good warbler, such as a nightingale or 

 canary, and then setting them at liberty ; but, though there 

 is some truth in this assertion, yet it is subject to certain restric- 

 tions. I only know of two ways of carrying this idea into 

 execution ; one by suspending the cages of the best warblers 

 in the orchard where the birds which they are to teach breed ; 

 the other, to enclose these warblers in a large aviary of iron 

 wire, in the open air. There let them teach their young ones, 

 which may be set at liberty as soon as they are able to fly : 

 but birds taken very young from the nest, and reared, formed, 

 and educated in the house, would not have instinct to find 



* This previous recording, as it is termed, is not uniform. Mr. Blyth informs 

 us that he had, in the year 1833, a blackcap which struck up all at once into a loud 

 song. TRANSLATOR 



t Phil. Trans, vol. Ixiii. 1773. 



B 2 



