338 APPENDIX. VI. 



as in the instance which I before stated of the 

 sparrow. 



I must own also, that I conceived, from the 

 experiment of educating the robin under a 

 nightingale, that the scholar would fix upon 

 the note which it first heard when taken from 

 the nest ; I imagined likewise, that, if the night- 

 ingale had been fully in song, the instruction 

 for a fortnight would have been sufficient. 



I have, however, since tried the followino; ex- 

 periment, which convinces me, so much depends 

 upon circumstances, and perhaps caprice in the 

 scholar, that no general inference, or rule, can 

 be laid down with regard to either of these 

 suppositions. 



I educated a nestling robin under a w^ood- 

 lark-linnet, which was full in song, and hung 

 very near to him for a month together : after 

 which, the robin was removed to another house, 

 where he could only hear a skylark-linnet. The 

 consequence was, that the nestling did not sing 

 a note of woodlark (though I afterwards hung 

 him again just above the woodlark-linnet) but 

 adhered entirely to the song of the skylark- 

 linnet. 



Having thus stated the result of several ex- 

 ' periments, which were chiefly intended to de- 

 termine, whether birds had any innate ideas of 



