vii Aristotle on Birds 189 



he writes of the bird with tolerable accuracy. It 

 must have been well known to him, not only at 

 Athens, but at his early home in Stageirus, for the 

 woods of the Chalcidic peninsula are fuU of Nightin- 

 gales. A traveller in Greece, not blest with a 

 musical ear, once told me that at Mount Athos — not 

 far from Stageirus — he was kept awake by frogs and 

 Nightiugales, and was unable to distinguish the two. 

 There is a passage in the fourth book of Aristotle's 

 work in which it is said that the Nightingale has 

 been seen teaching its young to sing. " Some kinds 

 of small birds do not utter the same voice in singing 

 as their parents do, if they have been brought up 

 away from them and have heard other birds singing. 

 The Nightingale has ere now been seen instructing its 

 young, which suggests that the language is not by 

 nature the same as the voice, but capable of being 

 formed (by teaching)." ^ Here, as is quite plain 

 from the next words, a distinction is drawn between 

 the song and the voice or intonation, and the song of 

 the bird is regarded as s'peech. We also note with 

 interest that Aristotle knew what we moderns only 

 learnt a century ago, that a bird does not sing its own 

 song simply by instinct, but wiU sing another bird's 

 song if the proper chance is given it. The proof of 

 this which is offered is indeed one which many will 



^ H. A. iv. 9-19. The word for song is here dtaKeKTos ; that 

 for voice 0uy^. 



