SONG OF BIRDS. 



475 



is observed to change its abode with the seasons, coming into those 

 parts where it usually breeds, in April, and retiring in August. When 

 killed, this bird was sitting on the ground in a meadow, and suffered the 

 man to approach it without fear, and in that situation it was shot. The 

 colour of the irides was not noticed, but upon dissection for preserving, 

 two enlarged eggs were discovered. — [See Brown Starling.] 



SONG OF BIRDS. — As the song of birds is not allowed to be 

 the effect of love, by an honourable author on the subject of singing 

 birds, (Daines Barrington,) we shall endeavour to elucidate this matter 

 from experiments on birds, in their natural wild state ; and also endea- 

 vour to prove that their notes are innate, -contrary to that author's 

 opinion. That confined birds will learn the song of others they are 

 constantly kept with, there is no doubt; but then it is generally blended 

 with that peculiar to the species. In the spring, the very great exer- 

 tions of the male birds in their vociferous notes are certainly the calls to 

 love ; and the peculiar note of each is an unerring mark for each to 

 discover its own species. If a confined bird had learned the song of 

 another, without retaining any part of its natural notes, and was set at 

 liberty, it is probable it would never find a mate of its own species ; 

 and even supposing it did, there is no reason to believe the young of 

 that bird would be destitute of its native notes ; for if nestling birds have 

 no innate notes peculiar to the species, and their song is only learned 

 from the parent bird, how are we to account for the invariable note each 

 species possesses, when it happens that two different species are bred 

 up in the same bush, or in one very contiguous^ or when hatched or 

 fostered by a different species. There is every reason to believe it is 

 necessary that there should be native notes peculiar to each species, or the 

 sexes might have some difficulty in discovering each other, the species 

 be intermixed, and a variety of mules produced ; for we cannot sup- 

 pose birds discriminate the colours by which their species are known, 

 because some distinct species are so exactly alike that a mixture might 

 take place. The males of song birds, and many others, do not in gene- 

 ral search for the female, but, on the contrary, their business in the 

 spring is to perch on some conspicuous spot, breathing out their full 

 and amorous notes, which, by instinct, the female knows, and repairs to 

 the spot to choose her mate. This is particularly verified with respect 

 to the summer birds of passage. The nightingale, and most of its 

 genus, although timid and shy to a great degree, mount aloft, and in- 

 cessantly pour forth their amorous strains, each seemingly vieing in its 

 love-laboured song before the females arrive. No sooner do they make 

 their appearance than dreadful battles ensue, and their notes are consi- 



