ON THE SINGING OF BIRDS. 
for, in such instances, the passages are not only 
the same, but the tone. 
Such was the event of the experiment I have 
before mentioned of the linnet educated under a 
wengolina. * 
In my experiment, however, of teaching the 
sparrow the notes of the linnet, though the scho- 
lar imitated the passages of its master, yet the 
tone of the sparrow had by no means the mel- 
lowness of the original. 
The imitation might therefore be, in some 
measure, compared to the singing of an opera 
song by a black-guard, when, though the notes 
may be precisely the same, yet the manner and 
tone would differ very much. 
Thus also the linnet, which I heard repeat 
the words pretty boy, did not articulate like 
a parrot, though, at the same time, the words 
might be clearly distinguished. 
The education I have therefore been speaking 
of will not give new organs of voice to a bird, 
stances which he chiefly attended to were their weight, as well 
as both the consistence and colour of their dung. 
He always frankly said what he expected from his prescrip- 
tions, and that if such and such changes did not soon take place, 
the case was desperate. He frequently also refused to prescribe, 
if the bird felt too light in the hand, or he thought that there was 
not sufficient time to bring about an alteration in the dung. 
* The Angola Finch. Lath. Syn. iii. 309. Buffon Hist. dois. 
iy. 80. Edwards tab. 129. Ep. 
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