1-36 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



I never stated that the Corncrake had any desire to imitate the 

 sound ; I merely mentioned the similarity of the two sounds as 

 noteworthy. 



Mr. Fowler again misquotes me when writing: — " The Star- 

 ling's ' whining' sounds are like the noise made when a bird pulls 

 a large worm out of the ground." What I wrote was this : — " In 

 the song of the Starling are some * whirring ' sounds (generally 

 uttered near the beginning of a phrase) which resemble the 

 noise made in pulling a large worm from his hole." There is 

 some distinction between " whining" and " whirring," us applied 

 to a bird's song ; but I am now glad to hear from Mr. Fowler that 

 the misspelling was due to a printer's error. Mr. Fowler does not 

 say whether he tried to bring his ear near enough to the struggling 

 worm to hear what noise it actually produces. 



He continues : — " The Robin's song is like the gurgling of 

 water, says Mr. Witchell." This is not quite accurate. I wrote : — 

 " The song of the Redbreast seems to be, in its general character, 

 an imitation of the gurgling of water : in summer the bird is very 

 often near water." The latter clause is quoted in inverted commas 

 thus : — " The Robin is frequently found near water." The music 

 of the Robin is describable as a sort of trickling music, in general 

 character not unlike the sweetest murmurs of a small stream. 



He thus sums up : — " Surely it is hopeless to try to discover 

 the ultimate origin of individual songs. It is little or no good to 

 publish mere guesses which cannot possibly recommend them- 

 selves to the judgment of cautious inquirers." Yet he him- 

 self revels in the mimicry which he has observed, though that 

 indicates, if anything can, the origin of the songs of individual 

 birds. He adds : — " It would be more possible, and on the whole 

 more useful, to examine a single group of closely-allied songs, with 

 the object of finding in them some common ancestral element — an 

 archetypal song, the character of which has survived throughout 

 the genus, while particular species have been gradually modifying 

 it. As song is without doubt a valuable specific character, it 

 might surely be worth while to trace its relation, as well as that 

 of plumage and structure, to the generic characters of the whole 

 group. Take, for example, the songs of the Buntings," &c. 



Now it appears to me that Mr. Fowler might here have 

 mentioned my articles, knowing that I was the first person who 

 had written on this theme; that I had traced " family-voices" 



