WAYS OF NATURE 



that has not yet been fully settled. That imitation 

 has much to do with it admits of little doubt. The 

 song of a bird is of secondary importance in its life. 

 Birds reared in captivity, where they have never 

 heard the songs of their kind, sing at the proper age, 

 but not always the songs of their parents. Mr. Scott 

 of Princeton proved this with his orioles. They sang 

 at the proper age, but not the regular oriole song. 

 I am told that there is a well-authenticated case of 

 an English sparrow brought up with canaries that 

 learned to sing like a canary. "The Hon. Daines 

 Barrington placed three young linnets with three 

 different foster-parents, the skylark, the woodlark, 

 and the titlark or meadow-pipit, and each adopted, 

 through imitation, the song of its foster-parent." I 

 have myself heard goldfinches that were reared in a 

 cage sing beautifully, but not the regular goldfinch 

 song; it was clearly the song of a finch, but of what 

 finch I could not have told. I have also heard a robin 

 that sang to perfection the song of the brown 

 thrasher ; it had, no doubt, caught it by imitation. 

 I have heard another robin that had the call of the 

 quail interpolated into its own proper robin's song. 

 But I have yet to hear of a robin building a nest like 

 a brown thrasher, or of an oriole building a nest like 

 a robin, or of kingfishers drilling for grubs in a tree. 

 The hen cannot keep out of the water the ducks she 

 has hatched, nor can the duck coax into the water 

 the chickens she has hatched. The cowbird hatched 

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