372 APPENDIX. VI. 



from the attention which the mocker pays to any 

 other sort of disagreeable noises, these capital 

 notes would be always debased by a bad mixture. 



We have one* mocking bird in England, which 

 is the skylark ; as, contrary to a general obser- 

 vation I have before made, this bird Avill catch 

 the note of any other which hangs near it; even 

 . . after the skylark note Va fixed. For this reason, 

 the bird-fanciers often place the skylark next one 

 which hath not been long caught, in order, as 

 they term it, to keep the caged skylark honest. 



The question, indeed, may be asked, w hy the 

 wild skylark, with these powers of imitation, 

 ever adheres to the parental notes; but it must 

 be recollected, that a bird when at liberty is for 

 ever shifting its place, and consequently does 

 not hear the same notes eternally repeated, as 

 when it hangs in a cage near another. In a 

 wild state therefore the skylark adheres to the 

 parental notes ; because the parent cock attends 

 the young ones, and is heard by them for so 

 considerable a time, during which, they pay no 

 '' regard to the song of any other bird. 



I am a\Aare also, that it may be asked, how- 

 birds originally came by the notes which are 

 peculiar to each species. I\Iy answer, however, 



* The Sedge Warbler described at page 5 17 of the first volume 

 of this work, is the completest British mocking bird. Ed. 



