APPENDIX. 66 9 



On further inquiries, I found that the bird had 

 been taken from the neft when only a day or two 

 old, that it was hung in a window which Was 

 oppofite to a fmall garden, whence the nettling had 

 undoubtedly acquired the notes of the wren, with- 

 out having had any opportunity of learning evea 

 the call of the goldfinch. 



Thefe facts, which I have dated, feem to prove 

 very decifively, that birds have not any innate ideas 

 of the notes which are fuppofed to be peculiar to 

 each fpecies. But it will pofiibly be afked, why, 

 in a wild ftate, they adhere fo fleadily to the 

 fame fong, in fo much, that it is well known, be- 

 fore the bird is heard, what notes you are to ex- 

 pect from him. 



This, however, arifes entirely from the ne(lling f s 

 attending only to the initruction of the parent bird, 

 whilft it difregards the notes of all others, which 

 may perhaps be finging round him. 



Young Canary birds are frequently reared in a 

 room where there are many other forts -, and yet I 

 have been informed, that they only learn the fong 

 of the parent cock. 



Every one knows, that the common houfe-fpar- 

 row, when in a wild ftate, never does any thing 

 but chirp : this, however, does not arife from want 

 of powers in this bird to imitate others -, but be- 

 caufe he only attends to the parental note. 



But, to prove this decifively, I took a com- 

 mon fparrow from the neft when it was fledged, 



and 



