226 SPRING. 



notes of other birds, without any teaching from man, 

 are concerned, we may trace something like a purpose 

 answered by the imitation. They are the greatest 

 plunderers that we have of the nests of other birds, 

 and as the jay especially builds late, the probability is 

 that it plunders young rather than eggs ; and that by 

 imitating the cry of the parent birds, that cry which is 

 familiar to their young ones, it may make them, by 

 their answering cry, discover the nest. That it should 

 in a state of captivity learn to imitate cries, the imita- 

 tion of which would be of no use to it in its natural 

 state, is no argument against this native reason for 

 the possession of it. The different tones and keys in 

 which the jay can make itself be heard, show that 

 there must be a peculiarly mobile formation of the 

 larynx ; and every one is aware that if there is a 

 capability of producing the requisite number of sounds, 

 there is a very great range in the modulation of them. 

 If a bird can utter six different notes, it may be made 

 to sing seven hundred and twenty songs, even although 

 all the notes are constantly of the same length, but 

 as each note may be varied in time and cadence, the 

 number of songs from the six notes will amount to 

 many thousands. 



It is a remarkable fact, though we have never met 

 with any satisfactory explanation of it, that all those 

 birds which are most easily taught to articulate, have 

 their native airs very disagreeable, and are equally 

 remarkable for their incessant chattering, and mis- 

 chievous activity ; and the whole race of them without 

 exception are pilfering and destructive. The birds that 



