366 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



The cat plays with the captured mouse, and the cormorant with 

 the captured fish. The weaver-bird (Ploceus), when confined in*a 

 cage, amuses itself by neatly weaving blades of grass between 

 the wires of its cage. Birds which habitually fight during the 

 breeding-season are generally ready to fight at all times; and 

 the males of the capercailzie sometimes hold their Balzen or leks 

 at the usual place of assemblage during the autumn.^'' Hence 

 it is not at all surprising that male birds should continue singing 

 for their own amusement after the season for courtship is over. 



As shown in a previous chapter, singing is to a certain extent 

 an art, and is much improved by practice. Birds can be taught 

 various tunes, and even the unmelodious sparrow has learnt to 

 sing like a linnet. They acquire the song of their foster parents,"' 

 and sometimes that of their neighbors."' All the common song- 

 sters belong to the Order of Insessores, and their vocal organs are 

 much more complex than those of most other birds; yet it is a 

 singular fact that some of the Insessores, such as ravens, crows, 

 and magpies, possess the proper apparatus," though they never 

 sing, and do not naturally modulate their voices to any great ex- 

 tent. Hunter asserts'* that with the true songsters the muscles 

 of the larynx are stronger in the males than in the females; but 

 with this slight exception there is no difference in the vocal or- 

 gans of the two sexes, although the males of most species sing 

 so much better and more continuously than the females. 



It is remarkable that only small birds properly sing. The 

 Australian genus Menura, however, must be excepted; for the 

 Menura Alberti, which is about the size of a half-grown turkey, 

 not only mocks other birds, but "its- own whistle is exceedingly 

 "beautiful and varied." The males congregate and form "cor- 

 roborying places," where they sing, raising and spreading their 

 tails like peacocks, and drooping their wings." It is also remark- 

 able that birds which sing well are rarely decorated with brilliant 

 colors or other ornaments. Of our British birds, excepting the 

 bullfinch and goldfinch, the best songsters are plain-colored. The 

 kingfisher, bee-eater, roller, hoopoe, woodpeckers, &c., utter harsh 

 cries; and the brilliant birds of the tropics are hardly ever song- 



'1 L. Lloyd, 'Game Birds of Sweden,' 1S67, p. 25. 



== Barrington, ibid. p. 264. Bechstein, ibid. d. 5. 



=<■■ Bureau de la Malle gives a curious instance ('Annates des Sc. 

 Nat.' 3rd series, Zoolog. torn. x. p. 118) o( some wild blackbirds in his 

 garden in Paris which naturally learnt a republican air from a, caged 

 bird. 



" Bishop, in 'Todd's Cyclop, of Anat. and Phys.' vol. iv. p. 1496. 



2' As stated by Barrington in 'Philosoph. Transact.' 1773, p. 262. 



'« Gould, 'Handbook to the Birds of Australia.' vol. i. 1865, pp. 308-310. 

 See also Mr. T. W. Wood in the 'Student.' April 1870, p. 125. 



