ON THE SINGING OF BIRDS. S27 



before been scientifically treated of,* it may 

 not be improper to prefix an explanation of 

 some uncommon terms, which I shall be obliged 

 to use, as well as others which I have been ' ■ 

 under a necessity of coining. 



To chirp is the first sound which a young 

 bird utters, as a cry for food, and is different 

 in all nestlings, if accurately attended to; so 

 that the hearer may distinguish of what species ^ 



the birds are, though the nest may hang out of 

 his sight and reach. 



This cry is, as might be expected, very Aveak 

 and querulous ; it is dropped entirely as the 

 bird grows stronger, nor is afterwards inter- 

 mixed with its song, the chirp of a nightingale 

 (for example) being hoarse and disagreeable. 



To this definition of the chirp, I must add, 

 that it consists of a single sound, repeated at ^ 



very short intervals, and that it is common to 

 nestlings of both sexes. 



The call of a bird, is that sound which it is 

 able to make, when about a month old ; it is, 

 in most instances (which I happen to recollect) 



* Kircher, indeed, in his Musiirgia, hath given us some few 

 passages in the song of the nightingale, as well as the call of a 

 quail and cuckow, which he hath engraved in musical charac- 

 ters. These instances, however, only prove that some birds 

 have in their song, notes which correspond with the intervals of 

 our common scale of the musical octave. . ■ 



