226 



KNOWLEDGE 



[October 1, 1897. 



quite independently of the presence of their mates. It 

 would therefore seem tliat when at this season the 

 starling is sitting alone on his favourite chimney, chatter- 

 ing through his accustomed strains, and studying new 

 ones, he is no more conscious of love than is the robin, 

 who, from the top of his highest tree, defies a rival in the 

 next garden. At the same time it is clear that in autumn, 

 as in spring, many song birds, besides the starling, are by 

 no means content with any particular strain, but try to 

 vary their songs as much as possible. In these efforts the 

 birds seem to be influenced by their experience, as we are 

 in other matters. They seem to be influenced by the 

 sounds customary in their environment, and to attune 

 their notes to resemble many of these noises. In the 

 starling this mimicry is excellent. In the robin it is 

 sometimes perfect, but generally obscure and indicated by 

 a similarity in accent and rhythm rather than by identity 

 of tone. 



In a general sense the same methods in singing are 

 employed in autumn as in spring ; and although some of 

 the first autumn songs are of a simple character (presum- 

 ably those of young birds), the effort to vary is seemingly 

 as constant in autumn as it is in spring. Despite this, 

 however, the characteristic exclamations and general tone 

 of song are preserved, as though vitally important. Many 

 cries are, doubtless, inherited — especially in birds of limited 

 vocal range ; but it is equally certain that in many of the 

 more musical species the songs are traditional — learned by 

 successive generations (probably unconsciously) from their 

 parents, and, in due time, repeated to their successors. 

 It is probable that certain cries may be inherited in a 

 species, and by the same bird song-notes may be acquired 

 by mimicry. In all cases young birds reared under foster 

 parents are more likely to retain the call-notes and alarms 

 than any other notes of their natural parents. Such an 

 autumn singer as the great titmouse, with frequent charac- 

 teristic alarm-cries, and with song-notes differing consider- 

 ably in different individuals, yet sometimes exactly resem- 

 bling those of another species, might illustrate the effects 

 of both heredity and mimicry — the more so because the 

 tits can hardly be termed singers. Unfortunately, the 

 great titmouse is uusuited to the artificial life of a prisoner. 

 Since there is so little evidence supporting the theory 

 that autumnal songs are love songs, we must attribute 

 them to some other emotional origin. It is clear that 

 spring songs are often addressed by birds to their mates. 

 It is also clear that most of the autumn songs are expres- 

 sive of pleasure (c.'/., those of robin, lark, wren, hedge 

 sparrow, thrush and young blackbird, great tit) ; and the 

 som-ce of this pleasure may well be the appearance of the 

 surroundings of the singers. It is extraordinary that this 

 statement should be deemed unwarrantable, for many birds 

 have so keen an appreciation of locality that they return 

 year by year, from a long migration, to precisely the same 

 spots ; and birds of several resident species will build year 

 after year in exactly the same positions, though each nest 

 and its contents be destroyed by violence. Yet we, who 

 have comparatively so little of the local instinct, are by no 

 means willing to admit that birds may have an esthetic 

 appreciation of surroundings. We seem to be desirous of 

 limiting these ardent creatures to the operations of 

 unreasoning instinct ; and anyone claiming for them a 

 share of some of our higher faculties is met with a chorus 

 of demand for scientific proof — where such proof is obviously 

 unobtainable. One would think that in the case of the 

 robin and starling, at least, no further proof than the 

 manners of the birds when singing could be reasonably 

 required. It is not possible to discuss all the bearings of 

 this question within the limits of one article. The general 



lines of investigation have, however, been suggested — 

 namely, an analysis of the cries constituting a song, obser- 

 vation of the presence of a mate or other birds, and other 

 general incidents. Each species should be considered 

 separately. 



In spring the love- calls of birds are prominent ; in 

 summer the cries employed are chiefly addressed to the 

 young ; and in autumn the great incident of the southward 

 migration occasions a frequent use of the voice. The cries 

 now employed are call-notes, many of them identical with 

 notes uttered in spring (as in, «.;/., finches, pipits, wagtails, 

 swallow, chiffchaff, etc.) ; and this fact gives weight to 

 the theory that the call-notes are among the most ancient 

 of the cries of birds. These cries are not limited to the 

 hours of daylight ; at night the passing migrants may be 

 heard, especially near small country towns, where the 

 illuminations seem to attract the voyagers, and the noise 

 of trafBe is not enough to drown their notes. 



Most of the aquatic birds migrate at night. Their loud 

 resonant voices are then audible at a considerable distance, 

 and are especially noticeable when heard over inland towus, 

 where the birds themselves may be quite unknown. At 

 Stroud I used to hear at spring and fall the peculiar cries 

 of some migrants passing atnight. In spring the sounds were 

 heard between eleven and twelve o'clock, in autumn a couple 

 of hours later. In spring the notes were given at the same 

 pitch by two or three birds ; in autumn the sounds were 

 uttered by a half-dozen together, and were in two keys, 

 the higher notes being probably those of young birds. In 

 spring the cries were heard during only a few moments, 

 while the birds were passing ; in autumn the noise con- 

 tinued sometimes for minutes, and this suggested that 

 some of the birds (probably the younger ones) had been 

 attracted by the lights in the town or possibly by reflec- 

 tions from the waters of the canal there, and were loth to 

 leave. 



The commonest of all night cries of migrants is the soft, 

 brief, whispered " seeyou " of the redwing — sounding 

 rather plaintive and weird in the misty darkness. It is 

 also often heard in the daytime. Throughout November 

 this cry is particularly frequent at night, but it is not very 

 noticeable, and most people do not observe it at all. On 

 one occasion I heard it one hundred and twenty-seven 

 times in the space of an hour and a half ; and I 

 have heard it from seventy to ninety times during 

 by no means long walks at night on the Cotteswolds. The 

 sound was heard as plainly on the slopes as on the hilltops 

 — proving that at night the bird flies in the same way as 

 by day, namely, drifting over the land at a height of 

 about a couple of hundred feet. This feature also suggests 

 that we should not ascribe a very lofty flight to all 

 nocturnal migrants because some of them happened to 

 be observed at a vast altitude through the telescopes 

 of astronomers. On the contrary, the frequency with 

 which we hear the signals of these aerial ships passing in 

 the night proves that great numbers of them fly no higher 

 by night than by day. 



♦- 



GREEK VASE PAINTING IN ITALY. 



By II. B. Walters, M.A., F.S.A. 



IN the last volume of Knowledge"' a series of articles 

 appeared dealing with the history of ancient Greek 

 vases, more especially those manufactured within the 

 boundaries of Greece proper. We propose in the 

 present paper to deal with an epoch of vase painting 

 which is in many respects distinct from that of Greece 



* See Knowledge, February, April, July, and December, 1896. 



