ON THE NOTES OF BIRDS. 35 
which powerfully tend to invalidate almost every thing 
of importance that has been advanced respecting this 
bird. 
In order to ascertain whether nestlings, when taken 
very young, will or will not have the calls and songs 
of their species, they should be kept in situations 
where they have no opportunity of learning any 
sounds which they may substitute for them ; but this, 
I believe, has never yet been attempted. 
I have already asserted that Mr. Barrington’s con- 
clusions are contrary to common experience. I shall 
now endeavour to establish this charge. 
It is well known to most persons who have the care 
and management of poultry that Ducks, Guinea-fowls, 
&c., hatched under the Domestic Hen, and Domestic 
Fowls hatched under Turkeys, have the calls and 
habits peculiar to their species. That this is the case 
also with Pheasants and Partridges, brought up under 
similar circumstances, I have had frequent opportu- 
nities of observing. It is a matter of universal noto- 
riety likewise that all Cuckoos of the species canorus, 
though hatched and reared by birds of various de- 
scriptions, have constantly their proper calls*. These 
* Mr. Barrington will not allow that the well-known cry of 
the Cuckoo is a song, because it does not happen to accord with 
the conditions of his arbitrary definition, though to the bird it 
answers every purpose of a song, as well as the more elaborate 
effusions of the Nightingale and Sky-Lark. Mr. Barrington defines 
a bird’s song to be a succession of three or more different notes, 
p2 
