July 30, 1896] 



NATURE 



291 



that all songs were so developed ; but it is quite possible 

 that this view may eventually hold the field, if due credit 

 be given to the inventive and imitative powers of the 

 bird, which, having once found a voice, would naturally 

 make constant use of it and thus develop its resources. 

 As regards imitation, he has much to say later on ; but 

 throughout the book he seems to me to neglect what I 

 should call invention, or the varying use of the voice for 

 the mere pleasure of using it. I am pretty confident that 

 many birds will go on uttering "call-notes," and even 

 songs, not for any special immediate purpose, but to 

 express a certain sense of comfort, and for the pleasure 

 derived from the eflfort. A good example of this is the 

 greenfinch, a bird in the interpretation of whose notes 

 Mr. Witchell surprises me ; but want of space forbids me 

 to enter into details. 



Next follows a chapter on certain noticeable incidents 

 of bird-song, which may be strongly recommended to 

 those who are beginning to make observations of the 

 utterances of birds. They will find their attention 

 directed .to such points as this : that variation from the 

 specific type of song is generally to be heard at the end 

 -of the phrase, and, conversely, that the first part of the 

 phrases sung by allied birds have the most resemblance 

 to common types. Or, again, that the call-notes and 

 alarms of allied birds are more alike than are their 

 songs — a point of great importance. A theory (p. 70) to 

 account for the fact that the most voiceful birds are, as a 

 rule, small, is also worth consideration. 



But it is in the last three chapters that we find the 

 most original and interesting contributions to the subject. 

 Of these, chapters vii. and ix. are on the influence re- 

 spectively of heredity and imitation, and between them 

 the author has placed a shorter one on variation. The 

 chapter on heredity, though it would be the better for a 

 thorough revision, both in the ordering and expression of 

 the matter, is nevertheless of great importance. Here 

 Mr. Witchell endeavours with success to trace the 

 influence of the principle of heredity by comparing the 

 aiotes and songs of allied species, so as to provide fresh 

 scientific reasons for their connection in classification. 

 As might be expected, he finds more to the purpose in 

 call-notes and alarms than in songs, and more in the 

 first phrases of song than in the conclusions. Some 

 things in this chapter may astonish us, such as the state- 

 ment that the buntings are more closely allied by voice 

 to the pipits than to the finches (p. 121), and the whole of 

 a paragraph on p. 113, in which the songs of nightingale, 

 lesser whitethroat, and cirl-bunting are declared to re- 

 semble each other ; but the general value of this part of 

 the work is beyond question, and cannot fail to act as a 

 fresh stimulus to many field ornithologists. 



In chapter ix. Mr. Witchell discusses his second lead- 

 ing principle in the development of song, viz. imitation, 

 whether of the voices of other birds, or of prevalent 

 sounds in fields and woods. This is, I think, his favourite 

 topic, and the one which he has most carefully elaborated 

 by observations and records. He has gone far beyond 

 any previous writer in the wide range of result he ascribes 

 to this influence, and his conclusions as to the imitative 

 capacity of many species will have to be most carefully 

 tested. For the last two months 1 have been endeavour- 

 ing to test them with varying result. As regards the 

 NO. 1396, VOL. 54] 



thrush and the robin, he has already convinced me that 

 they mimic much more than I had suspected, though I 

 cannot detect in these songs more than an occasional 

 imitation of which I can be gtiite certain. In others, 

 such as those of nightingale, redstart, whitethroat, &c., 

 I can as yet hardly detect any at all, though I have been 

 listening to these voices constantly and carefully for more 

 than twenty years. As far as my own experience goes, 

 I should be disposed to think that Mr. Witchell often 

 exaggerates superficial and accidental resemblances ; 

 but on the other hand, I can readily grant that his ear 

 may be more accurately trained than mine for the pur- 

 pose of detecting them. And in any case I must refrain 

 from detailed criticism, which can be but the pitting of 

 one man's experience against that of another. 



The short chapter on variation might well be amplified. 

 Not only do many birds show dialectic variation in 

 different localities, but in the same locality the singers 

 vary from each other, and even the individuals constantly 

 vary from one minute to another, as I have often 

 observed this spring. And yet the specific type is 

 always preserved, which is owing in great degree to the 

 peculiar tone or timbre of the vocal instrument of the 

 species — a point to which I hope Mr. Witchell will turn 

 his attention more closely than he seems yet to have 

 done. 



It gives me pleasure to sign a notice in which I hope 

 I have done justice to the merits of this work, for in a 

 book published a year and a half ago, I alluded to Mr. 

 Witchell's theory, as it was then known from papers in 

 the Zoologist, with somewhat scant respect. Some 

 fanciful conclusions to which he formerly gave promin- 

 ence, have in this volume retired modestly into the 

 background. W. Warde Fowler. 



THE STRUCTURE OF MAN. 

 The Structure of Man : an Index to his Past History, 

 By Prof. R. Wiedersheim, translated by H. and M. 

 Bernard. 8vo, pp. xxi + 227. (London : Macmillan 

 and Co., 1895.) 



THIS book, which is a translation ot Prof Wieders- 

 heim's " Der Bau der Menschen," by H. and M. 

 Bernard, has the advantage of a preface and notes by 

 Prof. G. B. Howes. As the preface states, the object of 

 the work " is an endeavour to set forth the more salient 

 features in the anatomy of man which link him with lower 

 forms, and others in that of lower forms which shed special 

 light on parts of the human organism." Such books 

 as this give>to the scientific study of anatomy much assist- 

 ance by calling attention to the interesting deductions 

 which may be made by a careful study of the different 

 variations met with in the dissection of man and animals. 

 In order that such deductions may be placed on a firm 

 basis, it is necessary to have careful observations recorded 

 in a very large number of cases, and in the English pre- 

 face of Prof. Wiedersheim's book a special tribute is paid 

 to the work carried out in the different anatomical schools 

 through the " Collective Investigation Committee of 

 Great Britain and Ireland." The English translation has 

 in a great many places been added to, and brought up to 

 date in notes by Prof Howes. Some of these additions 

 are exceedingly valuable in themselves, and further, their 



