PERCHING BIRDS. 73 



and seems as if composed of imitations of various birds. 

 I cannot, however, agree with those who consider this 

 species and the whitethroat as mocking birds. Although 

 undoubtedly the notes of the skylark and the swallow 

 may easily be recognised, and especially those of the 

 house sparrow, yet why should it be supposed that these 

 are merely imitations ? Such an idea has not much 

 show of reason in it, for the house sparrow is one of the 

 last birds whose note is likely to be heard by the sedge 

 warbler. I have met with a passage in Mr. Rennie's 

 Habits of Birds, which I think places the matter in 

 so clear a light that I am tempted to quote it. He 

 says : " Amongst some hundreds of these birds which 

 we have listened to in the most varied situations in the 

 three kingdoms, all seemed to have very nearly the same 

 notes, repeated in the same order ; a fact which appears 

 to us to be fatal to the inference of the notes being 

 derived not from one, but a number of other birds. For 

 if this were so it is not possible that these imitated notes 

 should all follow exactly, or very nearly, the same order 

 in the song of each individual imitator in different and 

 distant parts of the country. The close similarity of the 

 notes to those alleged t;> be imitated cannot be denied, 

 but, taking all the circumstances into account, we think 

 it much more probable that these resembling notes are 

 original to the sedge bird, and that we might with 

 equal justice accuse the swallow and the skylark of bor- 

 rowing from it." 



The above exactly corresponds with my own expe- 

 rience. I have heard the same series of notes continually 

 occur, and this repetition of the strain has been 

 always rendered the more noticeable by the harsh 

 chirrup of the house sparrow occurring at intervals 



