ACCURACY OF BIRDS* EAR. 195 



his head to institute a series of similar experiments, and 

 lo ! their results were just the reverse. How to recon- 

 cile them, is more than we know, so that lor the present 

 we must be content to have no opinion on the subject. 



Emily. Verily, I think we are like the metaphysical 

 ass between two bundles of hay, starving to death for lack 

 of a sufficient motive to prefer one to the other. 



Dr. B. How birds originally came by the notes 

 which are now peculiar to each species, we do not know ; 

 nor do we know why every nation has its peculiar lan- 

 guage and music. The power of singing belongs but to 

 few species of birds and is mostly confined to the males. 

 In their wild state they do not generally sing more than 

 two weeks in the year. 



Emily. Now however agreeable all this singing may 

 be to us who hear it, I cannot, for my life, comprehend 

 what important purpose in the economy of birds them- 

 selves, is answered by it. 



Dr. B. It would puzzle a wiser head than mine to 

 enlighten you on this point. It has been supposed that 

 the motive of the male bird in singing, is to amuse and 

 solace his partner, during the tedious process of incuba- 

 tion. But surely this motive cannot induce birds kept 

 in cages to sing as they do, nine or ten months in the 

 year. 



Emily. How accurate to, is the ear of singing birds 1 

 They readily learn any song from one another, and learn 

 many of our common tunes from the flute or flagelet. 

 I saw two or three years ago, in Boston, several robins 

 which an old man had taught to sing yankee doodle per- 

 fectly. The mocking bird will sing almost any short 

 strain after hearing it once or twice, and I have known a 

 parrot which is not a singing bird, sing part of a catch 

 with accuracy. Instances of Canary and other birds 

 learning our music, are very common. 



Dr. B. But the accuracy of a birds' ear appears 

 still more remarkable in this fact that they always sing 

 in the same key ; and it is owing to this that we never 



