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APPENDIX. VI. | 
from the attention which the mocker pays to any 
other sort of disagreeable noises, these capital. 
notes would be always debased by a bad mixture. 
We have one* mocking bird in England, which . 
is the skylark; as, contrary to a general obser-. 
vation I have before made, this bird will catch 
the note of any other which hangs near it; even. 
after the skylark note is fived. For this reason,’ 
the bird-fanciers often place the skylark next one. 
which hath not been long caught, in order, ‘as. 
they term it, to keep the caged skylark honest.” 
The question, indeed, may be asked, why the 
wild skylark, with these powers of imitation, 
ever adheres to the parental notes; but it must 
be recollected, that a bird when at liberty is for 
ever shifting its place, and consequently does 
not hear the same notes eternally repeated, as 
when it hangs in a cage near another. Ina 
wild state therefore the skylark adheres to the 
parental notes ; because the parent cock attends 
the young ones, and is heard by them for so 
considerable a time, during which, they pay no 
regard to the song of any other bird. , 
I am aware also, that it may be asked, how 
birds originally came by the notes which are 
peculiar to each species. My answer, however, 
* The Sedge Warbler described at page 517 of the first volume 
ef this work, is the completest British mocking bird. Ep. 
