364 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



each other for aid; and as they flit from tree to tree, the flock is 

 kept together by chirp answering chirp. During the nocturnal 

 migrations of geese and other water-fowl, sonorous clangs from 

 the van may he heard in the darkness overhead, answered by 

 clangs in the rear. Certain cries serve as danger signals, which, 

 as the sportsman knows to his cost, are understood by the same 

 species and by others. The domestic cock crows, and the hum- 

 ming-bird chirps, in triumph over a defeated rival. The true 

 song, however, of most birds and various strange cries are chiefly 

 uttered during the breeding-season, and serve as a charm, or 

 merely as a call-note, to the other sex. 



Naturalists are much divided with respect to the object of the 

 singing of birds. Few more careful observers ever lived than 

 Montagu, and he maintained that the "males of song-birds and of 

 "many others do not in general search for the female, but, on the 

 "contrary, their business in the spring is to perch on some con- 

 "spicuous spot, breathing out their full and amorous notes, which, 

 "by instinct, the female knows, and repairs to the spot to choose 

 "her mate."^' Mr. Jenner Weir informs me that this is certainly 

 the case with the nightingale. Bechstein, who kept birds during 

 his whole life, asserts, "that the female canary always chooses the 

 "best singer, and that in a state of nature the female finch selects 

 "that male out of a hundred whose notes please her most."-" 

 There can be no doubt that birds closely attend to each other's 

 song. Mr. Weir has told me of the case of a bullfinch which 

 had been taught to pipe a German waltz, and who was so good 

 a performer that he cost ten guineas; when this bird was first 

 introduced into a room where other birds were kept and he began 

 to sing, all the others, consisting of about twenty linnets and 

 canaries, ranged themselves on the nearest side of their cages, 

 and listened with the greatest interest to the new performer. 

 Many naturalists believe that the singing of birds is almost exclu- 

 sively "the effect of rivalry and emulation," and not for the sake 

 of charming their mates. This was the opinion of Daines Har- 

 rington and White of Selborne, who both especially attended to 

 this subject.™ Barrington, however, admits that "superiority in 

 "song gives to birds an amazing ascendancy over others, as is 

 "well known to bird-catchers." 



It is certain that there is an intense degree of rivalry between 

 the males in their singing. Bird-fanciers match their birds to 

 see which will sing longest; and I was told by Mr. Yarrell that 



=' ■Onithological Dictionary.' 1833, p. 475. 



^ 'Naturg-eschichte der Stubenvogel,' 1840, s. 4. Mr. Harrison Weir 

 likewise writes to me:— "I am informed tiiat the best singing males 

 "generally get a mate first, when they are bred in the same room." 



-=> 'Philosophical Transactions,' 1773, p. 263. White's 'Natural History 

 of Selborne,' 1825, vol. !. p. 246. 



