SONG OF BIRDS. 
475 
is observed to change its abode with the seasons, coming- into those 
parts where it usually breeds, in April, and retiring in August. When 
killed, this bird was sitting on the ground in a meadow, and suffered the 
man to approach it without fear, and in that situation it was shot. The 
colour of the hides was not noticed, but upon dissection for preserving, 
two enlarged eggs were discovered. — [See Brown Starling.] 
SONG OF BIRDS. — As the song of birds is not allowed to be 
the effect of love, by an honourable autlior on the subject of singing 
birds, (Daines Barrington,) we shall endeavour to elucidate this matter 
from experiments on birds, in their natural wild state ; and also endea- 
vour to prove that their notes are innate, contrary to that author’s 
opinion. That confined birds will learn the song of others they are 
constantly kept with, there is no doubt; but then it is generally blended 
with that peculiar to the species. In the spring, the very great exer- 
tions of the male birds in their vociferous notes are certainly the calls to 
love ; and the peculiar note of each is an unerring mark for each to 
discover its own species. If a confined bird had learned the song of 
another, without retaining any part of its natural notes, and was set at 
liberty, it is probable it would never find a mate of its own species ; 
and even supposing it did, there is no reason to believe the young of 
that bird would be destitute of its native notes ; for if nestling birds have 
no innate notes peculiar to the species, and their song is only learned 
from the parent bird, how are we to account for the invariable note each 
species possesses, when it happens that two different species are bred 
up in the same bush, or in one very contiguous, or when hatched or 
fostered by a different species. There is every reason to believe it is 
necessary that there should be native notes peculiar to each species, or the 
sexes might have some difficulty in discovering each other, the species 
be intermixed, and a variety of mules produced ; for we cannot sup- 
pose birds discriminate the colours by which their species are known, 
because some distinct species are so exactly alike that a mixture might 
take place. The males of song birds, and many others, do not in gene- 
ral search for the female, but, on the contrary, their business in the 
spring is to perch on some conspicuous spot, breathing out their full 
and amorous notes, which, by instinct, the female knows, and repairs to 
the spot to choose her mate. This is particularly verified with respect 
to the summer birds of passage. The nightingale, and most of its 
genus, although timid and shy to a great degree, mount aloft, and in- 
cessantly pour forth their amorous strains, each seemingly vieing in its 
love-laboured song before the females arrive. No sooner do they make 
their appearance than dreadful battles ensue, and their notes are consi- 
