OBSERVATIONS Oil 
i So 
1 know well that the Tinging of the cock bird 
in the Spring is attributed by many to the 
motive only of pleaftng its mate during incu- 
bation. 
Thofe, however, who Tuppofe this, fhould 
recollect, that much the greater part of birds 
do not fing at all : why fhould their mate, there- 
fore, be deprived of this folace and amufe- 
ment ? 
The bird in a cage, which, perhaps, lings 
nine or ten months in a year, cannot do fo 
from this inducement ; and, on the contrary, it 
arifes chiefly from contending with another bird, 
or, indeed, againft aim oil any fort of continued 
noife. 
Superiority in fong gives to birds a mo ft ama- 
Ting afcendency over each othe ; as is well 
known to the bird-catchers, by the fafcinating 
power of their call -birds, which they contrive 
fhould moult prematurely for the purpofe. 
But to fhow deciilvely that the Tinging of a 
bird in the Spring does not arife from any at- 
tention to its mate, a very experienced catcher 
of Nightingales hath informed me that fome 
of thefe birds have jerked the inftant they 
were caught. He hath alfo brought to me a 
O O 
Nightingale which had been but a few hours 
in a cage, and which burft forth in a roar of 
fong. 
