C 1«4 ] 
Experiments and Obfervations on the Singing of 
Birds : extracted from a curious Letter on that 
Subject) written by the Honourable Daines 
Barrington, to M. Maty, the Secretary of 
the Royal Society. 
S I R, 
# 
S the experiments ancl obfervations I 
mean to lay before the Royal Society 
relate to the finging of birds, which is a fub> 
jeft that hath never before been fcientifically 
treated of *, it may not be improper to prefix 
an explanation of fome uncommon terms, which 
I fhall be obliged to ufe, as well as others 
which I have been under a neceffity of coining. 
To chirp, is the firft lound which a young 
bird utters as a cry for food, and is different in 
all ne (flings, if accurately attended to ; fo that 
the hearer may diftinguifh of what fpecies the 
birds are, though the neft may hang out of his 
fight and reach. 
Kircher, indeed, in his Mufurgia, hath given us fome 
few paffages in the fong of the Nightingale, as well as the 
call of a Quail and Cuckow, which he hath engraved in 
muhcal chara&ers. Thefe inftances, however, only prove 
that fome buds have in their fong notes which correfpond 
with the intervals of our common fcale of the mufical odtave. 
