ths SINGING of BIPvDS. 175 
very near to him for a month, together ; after, 
which the Robin was removed to another houfe, 
where he could only hear a Skylark-Linnet* 
The confequeoce was, that the neftling did not 
-Gng a note of Wood-Lam (though I afterwards 
hung him again juft above the Woodlarlc-Lin* 
ne t) but adhered entirely to the fong of the. 
Skylark-Linnet. 
Having thus ftated the refult of feveral ex- 
periments, which were chiefly intended to de- 
termine whether birds had any innate ideas cf 
the notes, or cf fong, which is fuppofed to be 
peculiar to each fpecies, 1 (hall now make foms 
general obfervations on their fin gin g-, though 
perhaps the fubject may appear to many a very 
minute one. 
Every poet, indeed, fpeaks with, raptures of 
the harmony of the groves ; yet thofe even who 
have good mulical ears feem to pay little at- 
tention to it but as a pleating nolle. 
I am alfo convinced (though it may feem ra- 
ther paradoxical), that the inhabitants of Lon- 
don diftinguifli more accurately, and know 
more on this head, than of all the other parts 
of the iiland taken together. 
This feems to anfe from two caufes. 
The fir ft is, that we have not more nautical 
ideas which are innate than we have of lan- 
guage \ and therefore thofe even who have the 
happinefs to have organs which are capable of 
