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APPENDIX. VI. 
a repetition of one and the same note; is retain- 
ed by the bird as long as it lives, and is com- 
mon, generally, to both the cock and hen.* 
The next stage in the notes of a bird is term- 
ed, by the bird-catchers, recording, which word 
is probably derived from a musical instrument, 
formerly used in England, called a recorder. 
This attempt in the nestling to sing, may be 
compared to the imperfect endeavour in a child 
to babble. I have known instances of birds 
beginning to record when they were not a month 
old. 
This first essay does not seem to have the 
least rudiments of the future song; but as the 
bird grows older and stronger, one may begin 
to perceive what the nestling is aiming at. 
Whilst the scholar is thus endeavouring to 
form his song, when he is once sure of a pas- 
* For want of terms to distinguish the notes of birds, Belon 
applies the verb chantent, or sing, to the goose and crane, as well 
as the nightingale. ‘* Plusieurs oiseaux chantent la nuit, 
comme est l’oye, la grue, & le rossignol.” Belon’s Hist. of 
Birds, p. 50. 
t+ It seems to have been a species of flute, and was probably 
used to teach young birds to pipe tunes. 
Lord Bacon describes this instrument to have been strait, to 
have had a lesser and greater bore, both above and below, to 
have required very little breath from the blower, and to have had 
what he calls a fipple, or stopper. See his second Century of 
Experiments. 
