ON THE SINGING OF BIRDS. 
sage, he commonly raises his tone, which he 
dreps again when he is not equal to what he is. 
attempting ; just as a singer raises his voice, 
when he not only recollects certain parts of a 
tune with precision, but knows that he can 
execute them. 
What the nestling is not thus thoroughly 
master of, he hurries over, lowering his tone, 
as if he did not wish to be heard, and could not 
yet satisfy himself. 
I have never happened to meet with a pas- 
sage in any writer, which seems to relate to this 
stage of singing in a bird, except, perhaps, in 
the following lines of Statius : 
————— “ Nunc voluerum novi 
“© Questus, inexpertumque carmen, 
A 9? 
** Quod tacitd statuere bruma. 
Stat. Sylv. L. IV. Ecl. 5. 
A young bird commonly continues to record 
for ten or eleven months, when he is able to exe- 
cute every part of his song, which afterwards 
continues fixed, and is scarcely ever altered.* 
When the bird is thus become perfect in his 
* The bird called a Twite (See vol. i. p. 467.) by the bird- 
catchers commonly flies in company with linnets, yet these two 
species of birds never learn each other’s notes, which always . 
continue totally different. 
329 
