NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 279 



Among other orders of birds thus discussed are the Finches. 

 The young Chaffinch has a note like that of the young House 

 Sparrow, and the pink of the Chaffinch is heard in some other 

 Finches. The Sparrow's tell cry is heard prominently in the 

 young Greenfinch and young Brown Linnet. Many other kinds 

 of birds are mentioned in connection with this new and hitherto 

 practically unworked and unnoticed but valuable field for 

 research. Mr. Witchell claims that it is rational to conclude 

 that such family cries as those he adduces "have been employed 

 during a much longer period than songs, which are varied locally 

 and individually ; and that the original cries of the various kinds 

 are recorded in their danger-cries and call-notes ; and that the 

 tones of the later-developed cries, and modes of singing, are 

 indicated in the first part of the songs, for these have the most 

 generic characters " (p. 137). 



In dealing with Variation (Chapter VIII.), it is laid down as an 

 axiom that vocal utterance is always subject to variation. In 

 connection with this theme, extravagance of demeanour is con- 

 sidered, and the progressive song of a Blackbird heard in a garden 

 during several seasons is illustrated in notation (pp. 148, 149). 

 Instances of variation in a House Sparrow, Robin, and Cuckoo 

 are mentioned. 



Chapter IX. treats of the influence of imitation, a twin subject 

 to the influence of heredity, in both of which the author has 

 practically broken new ground. Some forty kinds of birds alone 

 are discussed in connection with this matter — a list quite beyond 

 consideration in the space at our disposal. 



But notwithstanding the extensive claims made for mimicry 

 in the Thrush, Robin, Sky Lark, Starling, and other birds, and 

 although Mr. Witchell claims as of imitative origin the curious 

 alleged resemblances between the notes of certain birds and 

 sounds made by the elements, by quadrupeds, insects, and by 

 other birds, we do not gather that he claims that a similarity 

 between a bird's note and any other persistent sound is due to 

 the bird in question having deliberately tried to imitate the other 

 sound ; but that the species of bird may have been unconsciously 

 influenced during "a long period" by the persistent sound con- 

 tinually falling on its sense of hearing, with the result that its 

 cries might have been \ only very slightly altered in time or in 

 tone, and_ this small variation being followed by the young, might 



