June 24, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



959 



I have been unable to watch them as closely, 

 for they have not been caged, but have been at 

 large, first in a room by themselves until 

 February, and later associated in another room 

 with a number of meadowlarks that had been 

 reared in previous years. I particularly wish 

 to refer to one of the birds, a male which has 

 arrested the attention of all observers. 



In the same room with these larks there are 

 three blackbirds, Merula merula (Linnseus), 

 which I procured from Germany. All of 

 these birds are males, and they sing chiefly 

 late in the afternoon, but much more fre- 

 quently during the night, especially when there 

 is moonlight. Early in February I heard 

 constantly what I supposed was the song of 

 one of these blackbirds. The curious part of 

 it was that only one measure of the song was 

 produced, a silvery whistling sequence of five 

 or sis notes rather longer drawn out, and given 

 with much precision. For several weeks I 

 ascribed this to one of the blackbirds, and be- 

 lieved that because of the shelter afforded 

 them by many evergreen trees in my bird 

 room that it could only be this bird, though I 

 was unable to see the singer while hearing the 

 song. My friend, Mr. Horsfall, who was with 

 me during all the time, cheeked my observa- 

 tions, but we neither of us were able to 

 locate the songster. 



One of my meadowlarks of the brood men- 

 tioned attracted our attenion by his behavior 

 and deportment during the early part of April. 

 In addition to his song, which was quite dis- 

 similar to that of a wild meadowlark, he ac- 

 companied the performance by what I should 

 call a parade or dance, analogous to the strut 

 of the turkey-cock. It is so marked a char- 

 acteristic of this and other individuals of the 

 same species that I determined to have it 

 recorded in a color sketch, and for two or 

 three days Mr. Horsfall and I spent much 

 time in getting the position and manner of 

 the bird while occupied in this kind of be- 

 havior. The bird sang frequently while going 

 through the manoeuvre described, and both of 

 us finally saw and heard him many times sing, 

 preparatory to or after his own song, the 

 cadence described, which I had referred, before 



I saw the meadowlark do it, to the European 

 blackbird. 



Wliile I am fully aware that under the arti- 

 ficial conditions of confinement birds are ex- 

 tremely likely to acquire abnormal songs, I 

 can not but feel that the knowledge of the 

 methods of song which has come to me while 

 watching birds under these conditions, indi- 

 cate a receptivity which to some extent un- 

 doubtedly obtains in their lives out of doors. 

 My conclusion is that birds are influenced in 

 their early lives very strongly by any noise 

 that arrests their attention, even in a wild 

 state, and that this propensity to imitate and 

 differentiate their normal methods of song is 

 greatly exaggerated under the artificial state 

 wherein they live when in confinement. 



William E. D. Scott. 



Department of Oenithologt, 

 Pbinceton Univeksitt, 

 April 30, 1904. 



STANDARD TESTS OF AUDITION.* 



In a recent publication from this laboratory,! 

 tests for acuteness of hearing were divided 

 into two classes: speech-tests, which employ 

 letters, words or sentences, spoken aloud or 

 whispered, and mechanical tests, which employ 

 such apparatus as the watch, the tuning fork 

 and the acoumeter. The existence and the 

 common use of these two methods, for similar 

 purposes, seem to be explained by the fact that 

 each method possesses peculiar advantages, 

 while neither is sufficiently free from serious 

 defects to give it the whole field. The method 

 that employs the voice measures directly the 

 most important function of audition, the hear- 

 ing of human speech, and it may, at the same 

 time, be made sufficiently complex to cover a 

 wide range of tone and noise; but, to offset 

 this advantage, the method suffers from the 

 great variability of the vocal stimulus. Me- 

 chanical tests, on the other hand, are simpler 

 and are more easily standardized; but they do 

 not — just because of their simplicity — furnish 

 an adequate and reliable expression of general 



* From the Psychological Laboratory of Cornell 

 University. 



t See ' Auditory Tests,' B. R. Andrews, Amer. 

 Journal of Psych., XV., 14. 



