332 APPENDIX. VI. 



The Greek poets made a songster . of the 

 ■n'stti^, whatever animal that may be, and it is 

 remarkable that they observed the female was 

 incapable of singing as well as hen birds : 



Eir' siiTiv 01 fsffiyss ov>i suSaiiJ^ovs^, 

 Hv "taig yvvai^iv ov S' otiovv <pccvi]s bvi ; 

 Comieorum Grcecorum Sententlse, p. 452. Ed. Steph. 



I have indeed known an instance or two of a 

 hen's making out something like the song of her 

 species ; but these are as rare as the common 

 hen's being; heard to crow. 



I rather suspect also, that those parrots, mag- 

 pies, &c. which either do not speak at all, or 

 very little, are hens of those kinds. - - ^ 



I have educated nestling linnets under the 

 three best singing larks, the skylark, woodlark, 

 and titlark, every one of which, instead of the 

 linnet's song, adhered entirely to that of their 

 respective instructors. . :,/ 



When the note of the titlark-linnet* was 

 thoroughly jf.re^, I hung the bird in a room with 

 two common linnets, for a quarter of a year, 

 which were full in song; the titlark-linnet, 

 however, did not borrow any passages from the 

 . ■ ' ■ ■■ ' ■ ■■■ ".-lo....; :-!ii]H " • 



* I thus call a bird which sings notes he would not have 

 , learned in a wild state 3 thus by a skylark-linnet, I mean a lin- 

 net with the skylark song ; a nightingale-rolin, a robin with the 

 nightingale song, &:c. , ■ . ^, . 



