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XXXI. Experiments and Objervations on the 
Singing of Birds , by the Hon . Daines Bar 
rington, Vice Pref R. S. In a Letter to 
Mathew Maty, M. D. Sec . R. S. 
Read April 22, May 6, and May 13, 1773. 
January 10, 1773. 
Dear Sir, 
A S the experiments and obfervations I mean to 
lay before the Royal Society relate to the 
finging of birds, which is a fubjeft that hath ne- 
ver before been fcientifically treated of % it may 
not be improper to prefix an explanation of fome 
uncommon terms, which 1 fhall be obliged to ufe, 
as well as others which I have been under a necefiity 
of coining. 
To chirp , is the firft found which a young bird 
utters, as a cry for food, and is different in all neft- 
lings, if accurately attended to ; fo that the hearer 
may diflinguifh of what fpecies the birds are, though 
the neft may hang out of his fight and reach. 
* Kircher, indeed, in his Mufurgla , hath given us fome few 
paflages in the fong of the nightingale, as well as the call of a 
quail and cuckow, which he hath engraved in mufical characters. 
Thefe inftances, however, only prove that fome birds have in 
their fong, notes which correfpond with the intervals of our com- 
mon fcale of the mufical odtave. 
This 
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