184 BRITISH BIRDS. 



I gather, however, that Mr. Stubbs uses the word "sexual" 

 in a more restricted sense than is usual. For instance, I 

 imagine that the autumnal or winter moult of a bird, in so 

 far as it is different in the two sexes, is purely sexual, yet 

 this change is not productive of any emotional feeling such 

 as Mr. Stubbs seems to think would be necessary in the case 

 of the Sparrow (when he utters his autumnal song) if it w T ere 

 argued that song is always sexual. 



In my original letter I should like to state that I only 

 ventured to suggest a cause for winter song, or song uttered 

 apart from the actual breeding season, and I appreciate the 

 difficulty there would be in applying the above explanations 

 to song at this period. 



Percy R. Lowe. 



I shall be obliged if you will permit me to point out that in 

 his letter (p. 155), Mr. F. J. Stubbs has entirely misinter- 

 preted my remarks on the above subject (p. 121) by making 

 it appear I formulated the view that the bird " sings to please 

 himself " as an " alternative " to the one which makes its song 

 an expression of sexual emotion. I made no such state- 

 ment. I contented myself with pointing out that " there is 

 evidence to show that birds sing to give expression to other 

 emotions than those of love," a statement that most 

 ornithologists would, I imagine, be prepared to endorse. By 

 way of proof I instanced the fact that the Robin sings in 

 winter. It was in connection with this species alone that I 

 used the expression, " He sings to please himself." By it I 

 meant to suggest that the Robin sings in winter, like the 

 Starling, the House-Sparrow, the Skylark, and others, for the 

 same reason that a man whistles as he goes cheerfully, and 

 with a full stomach, to his work, and that a baby croons 

 upon the carpet. It may or it may not be the right explana- 

 tion, but in attacking it Mr. Stubbs seems to have been in- 

 advertently attacking me on the one point in which I may 

 be said to agree with him. I admit that, owing to the 

 vagueness of the expression, " Sings to please himself," he 

 had an excuse which he had not when he made it appear I 

 assumed that what applied to the Robin in Avinter applied to 

 all birds, and to the Robin itself in spring. 



Mr. F. J. Stubbs holds that song is always the " ebullition 

 of superfluous energy." I have just been re-reading Lloyd 

 Morgan's excellent " Habit and Instinct." In it I find 

 (p. 228) : " Song-birds matched against each other have been 

 known to sing till they dropped exhausted to death." It 

 seems to me that a bird singing in a state of complete 



