OBSERVATIONS OU 
1/8 
flrokes, or particular paffages in the fong of 
that bird. 
I mention this fuperior knowledge in the in- 
habitants of the capital, becaufe J'am convin- 
ced, that, if others are confuited in relation to 
the tinging' of birds, they will only miflead, in- 
fiend of giving any material or ufeful informa- 
tion *. 
Birds in a wild Hate do not commonly ling 
above ten weeks in the year ; which is then alfo 
confine 1 to the cocks of a few fpecies. I conceive 
that this laid circumftance ariles from the fupe- 
rior ftrength of the mufcles of the larynx. 
I procured a cock Nightingale, a cock and 
hen Black-Bird, a cock and hen Rook, a cdck 
Linnet, as alfo a cock and hen Chaffinch, which 
that very eminent anatomift, Mr Hunter, F.R.S. 
was fo obliging as to diffieR for me, and beg- 
ged that he would particularly attend to the 
Rate of the organs in the different birds, which 
might be fuppofed to contribute to finging. 
Mr Hunter found the mufcles of the larynx 
to be flronger in the Nightingale than in any 
other bird of the tame fize ; and in all thofe 
inffances (where he diifeed both cock and 
* As it will not anfwer to catch birds with clap-nets any 
where hut in the neighbourhood of London, mod of the 
biids v, hi.n may be heard in a country town are nettling?, 
and conlccjuently cannot fing the fuppol'cd natural fong La 
any perfection. 
