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172 
norfhire, which I happened to hear as I wac 
walking by the houfe where it was kept. 
I thought, indeed, that a Wren ‘was ringing-, 
and I went into the houfe to inquire after it,, as 
that little bird feldo'm lives long in a cage. 
The people of the hopfe, however, told me, 
that they had no bird but a Gold-Finch, which 
they conceived to ling its own natural note, as. 
they called it ; upon which 1 ftaid a confiderable 
time in the room, while its notes were merely 
thorn of a Wren, without the lealt mixture of 
the Gold-Finch. 
On further inquiries, I found that the bird 
had been taken from the nell when only two 
or three days old ; that it was hung in a win- 
dow which was opp elite to a fmall garden, 
whence the neftling had undoubtedly acquired 
the notes of the Wren, without having had anv 
opportunity of learning even the call of the 
Gold-Finch. 
Thefe faces which I have ftated feem to 
prove very decifively that birds have net any 
innate ideas of the notes which are fuppofed to 
be .peculiar to each fpecies. But it will po filbly 
be a Ike cl, why in a wild date they adhere fo 
fteadily to the fame tiling, mlomucli that it is 
well known, before the bird is heard, what 
notes you are to expeft from him, ? 
This however arifes entirely from the neft- 
ling’s attending only to the inltrudUon of the 
