[ 2 59 ] 
Having thus dated the refult of feveral experi- 
ments, which were chiefly intended to determine, 
whether birds had any innate ideas of the notes, or 
fong, which is luppofed to be peculiar to each fpe- 
cies, 1 fhall now make fome general obfervations on 
their finging ; though perhaps the fubjedt may ap- 
pear to many a very minute one. 
Every poet, indeed, fpeaks with raptures of the 
harmony of the groves ; yet thofe even, who have 
good muflcal ears, feem to pay little attention to it, 
but as a pleafing noife. 
I am alfo convinced (though it may feem rather 
paradoxical), that the inhabitants of London didin- 
guifh more accurately, and know more on this 
head, than of all the other parts of the ifland taken 
together. 
This feems to arife from two caufes. 
The fird is, that we have not more muflcal ideas 
which are innate, than we have of language ; and 
therefore thofe even, who have the happinefs to 
have organs which are capable of receiving a grati- 
fication from this fixth fenfe (as it hath been called by 
fome) require, however, the bed indrudtion. 
The orchedra of the opera, which is confined to 
the metropolis, hath diffufed a good dile of playing 
over the other bands of the capital, which is, by 
degrees, communicated to the fidler and ballad-finger 
in the dreets ; the organs in every church, as well as 
thofe of the Savoyards, contribute likewife to this im- 
provement of muflcal faculties in the Londoners. 
If the finging of the ploughman in the country is 
therefore compared with that of the London black- 
¥ol. LXIIL M m guard. 
