APPENDIX. 66% 



linging in a bird, except, perhaps, in the following 

 lines of Statins : 



--- " Nunc volucrum novi 



" Queftus, inexpertumque carmen, 

 " Quod tacita llatuere bruma." 



Stat. Syh. L. IV. Eel. 5. 



A young bird commonly continues to record 

 for ten or eleven months, when he is able to exe- 

 cute every part of his fong, which afterwards con- 

 tinues fixed, and is fcarceiy ever altered *. 



When the bird is thus become perfect in his lef- 

 fon, he is faid to Jing his fong round, or in all its 

 varieties of pafTages, which he connects together, 

 and executes without a paufe. 



I would therefore define a bird's fong to be a 

 fuccefiion of three or more different notes, which 

 are continued without interruption during the fame 

 interval with a mufical bar of four crotchets in an 

 adagio movement, or whilft a pendulum fwings four 

 feconds. 



By the firft requifite in this definition, I mean to 



* The bird called a Twite* by the bird-catchers common- 

 ly flies in company with linnets, yet thefe two fpecies of 

 birds never learn each other's notes, which always continue 

 totally different. 



* Br. Z00L Vol. II. p. 315. 8<z/o. prefent edition, I. p. 293. 



X x 3 exclude 



