36 ON THE NOTES OF BIRDS. 
facts, one would suppose, were quite sufficient to con- 
vince the most prejudiced that birds do not always 
acquire the calls and notes of those under which they 
are bred. But perhaps it may be urged that Ducks, 
Guinea-fowls, Pheasants, arid Partridges are probably 
incapable of learning the calls of Domestic Fowls, 
that Domestic Fowls, in their turn, may be incapable 
of acquiring the call of the Turkey, and that the 
Cuckoo appears to be very poorly qualified for imi- 
tatmg the notes of its foster-parents. Still I must 
contend that the incapacity of those birds has never 
been proved; and even if it had, it would afford no 
explanation of the manner in which they become 
acquainted with their own respective calls. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Barrington’s theory they ought to be 
mute, or at least should have such notes only as they 
have been able to pick up casually, which, of course, 
would possess little or no resemblance. 
which are continued without interruption during the same 
interval as a musical bar of four crotchets in an adagio move- 
ment, or whilst a pendulum swings four seconds; which neces- 
sarily excludes the Chaffinch, Redstart, Hedge-Warbler, Yellow 
Wren, and some others, which have always been accounted birds 
of song, as well as the Cuckoo, from any pretensions to the title. 
Perhaps it would be more natural, and certainly less exclusive, 
to apply the term song to those notes which are peculiar to the 
males ; yet this definition would admit the Peacock and Turkey 
into the catalogue of Singing Birds; and the hideous scream of 
the one and the ludicrous gobble of the other are certainly any 
thing but musical. 
