220 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS’ NESTS. 
and often make no nest at all, but rudely heap together 
a quantity of materials; and the experiment has never 
been fairly tried, of turning out a pair of birds so 
brought up, into an enclosure covered with netting, 
and watching the result of their untaught attempts at 
nest-making. With regard to the songs of birds, how- 
ever, which is thought to be equally instinctive, the 
experiment has been tried, and it is found that young 
birds never have the song peculiar to their species if 
they have not heard it, whereas they acquire very 
easily the song of almost any other bird with which 
they are associated. 
Do Birds sing by Instinct or by Imitation ? 
The Hon. Daines Barrington was of opinion that 
‘notes in birds are no more innate than language is 
in man, and depend entirely on the master under 
which they are bred, as far as their organs will enable 
them to imitate the sounds which they have frequent 
opportunities of hearing.” He has given an account 
of his experiments in the “ Philosophical Transac- 
tions ” for 1773 (Vol. 63); he says: “I have educated 
nestling linnets under the three best singing larks— 
the skylark, woodlark, and titlark, every one of which, 
instead of the linnet’s song, adhered entirely to that of 
their respective instructors. When the note of the 
titlark linnet was thoroughly fixed, I hung the bird 
in a room with two common linnets for a quarter of a 
year, which were full in,song; the titlark linnet, how- 
ever, did not borrow any passage from the linnet’s 
