230 BIRDS AND MAN 



would have given a different account. It is not 

 that Montagu was wrong : he went to nature 

 for his facts and put down what he heard, or 

 thought he heard, but the particular sounds 

 which he describes they would not have heard. 



My experience is, that the same notes and 

 phrases are not ordinarily heard in any two 

 localities ; that the bird is able to emit a great 

 variety of sounds — some highly musical ; that he 

 is also a great mimic in a wild irregular way, 

 mixing borrowed notes with his own, and flinging 

 them out anyhow, so that there is no order nor 

 harmony, and they do not form a song. 



But he also has a real song, which may be 

 heard in any assembly of jays and from some 

 male birds after the congregating season is over 

 and breeding is in progress. This singing of the 

 jay is somewhat of a puzzle, as it is not the same 

 song in any two places, and gives one the idea 

 that there is no inherited and no traditional song 

 in this species, but that each bird that has a song 

 has invented it for himself. It varies from "a 

 sort of low song," as Montagu said,-^a soft 

 chatter and warble which one can just hear at 

 a distance of thirty or forty yards, — to a song 



