332. THE STRUCTURE AND LIFE OF BIRDS cHap. 
all the chorus of the woods that he is to pick out and 
imitate? Mr. Witchell, who has written much upon 
the subject, holds that all birds learn their songs 
from their parents or from other birds. Every one of 
them, according to him, is a mimic, and is constantly 
imitating others. We are thus reduced to hopeless 
confusion. In an elaborate song we have to pick out 
the bird’s ancestral music from all the superadded 
variations. This is easy with a caged bird, because 
we can learn his proper song from his kinsmen in 
the woods. But if there is no limit to imitation 
among wild birds, chaos must result, and it would be 
far more difficult to learn the distinctive song of each 
species than it is. Confronted with the fact that 
nearly related birds living widely separated often 
have a similar song, Mr. Witchell is able still to 
cling to his theory. But if birds have to learn their 
notes by imitation, surely the American Ferruginous 
Thrush would by this time have picked up a different 
song from our common Thrush ; the Shore Lark of 
America would not sing like our Skylark, and the 
American Snipe would have a different cry from 
ours. It is a remarkable fact that many birds that 
are good mimics have little song of their own. This 
is the case with Parrots, Jays, Jackdaws, Starlings, 
and Bullfinches. It would seem as if it were an 
advantage to the mimic to have no old family 
music for the acquired song to drive out or modify, 
and this tells strongly against the notion that singing 
1 See “ Bird Song and its Scientific Teaching,” by C. A. 
Witchell, in the Proc. Cotteswold Natyratists Field Club, yol. x,, 
part ili, p. 238, 
