APPENDIX. 671 



which it firft heard when taken from the neft ; 

 I imagined likewife, that, if the nightingale had 

 been fully in fong, the inftruclion for a fortnight 

 would have been fufncient. 



I have, however, fince tried the following expe- 

 riment, which convinces me, fo much depends up- 

 on circumftances, and perhaps caprice in the fcho- 

 lar, that no general inference, or rule, can be laid 

 down with regard to either of thefe fuppofitions. 



I educated a neftling robin under a woodlark- 

 linnet, which was full in fong, and hung very near 

 to him for a month together: after which, the 

 robin was removed to another houfe, where he 

 could only hear a ikylark-linnet. The confequence 

 was, that the neftling did not ling a note of wood- 

 lark (though I afterwards hung him again juft a- 

 bove the woodlark-linnet) but adhered entirely to 

 the fong of the fkylark-linnet. 



Having thus dated the refult of feveral experi- 

 ments, which were chiefly intended to determine, 

 whether birds had any innate ideas of the notes, 

 or fong, which is fuppofed to be peculiar to each 

 fpecies, I mall now make fome general obfervations 

 on their finging; though perhaps the fubject may 

 appear to many a very minute one. 



Every poet, indeed, fpeaks with raptures of the 

 harmony of the groves 5 yet thofe even, who have 

 good mufical ears, feem to pay little attention to it, 

 but as a pleafing noife. 



I am alfo convinced (though it may feem rather 



paradoxical 



