[ 2 75 ] 
fing the linnet’s note, I fcarcely know what fpecies 
to fix upon, that may be confidered as incapable of 
fuch imitations ; for it is very clear, from feveral 
experiments before ftated, that the utmoft endea- 
vours will not be wanting in the bird, if he is en- 
dowed with the proper organs. 
It can therefore only be fettled by educating a 
bird, under proper circumftances, whether he is 
thus qualified or not ; for if one was only to de- 
termine this point by conjecture, one Ihould fuppofe 
If, indeed, M. de BufFon had not been thus inaccurate, the 
grafs and leaves, of which he fays it is made, would prove that 
Ariftotle fpeaks of the common partridge, contrary to what he 
himfelf fuppofes. 
But the ftrongeft proof that perdix fignifies the red legged 
partridge is, that the Italians to this day call this bird pernice h , 
and the common fort Jlarna '. 
This alfo now brings me to the proofs, of Jiurnus in this paf- 
fage of Statius fignifying the common partridge , and not the 
Jlarling , which I muft admit are not fo ftrong as with regard to 
the import of the word perdix. If my arguments are not there- 
fore fo convincing on this head, the number of birds taught to 
fpeak by the Romans, and not by us, muft be reduced to three, 
as the ftarling is frequently learned to talk in the prefent times. 
As I cannot argue from the defcription of the habits of the 
Jiurnus , or the materials of its neft, as in the former inftance, I 
muft reft my conje&ure (fuch as it is) on the two birds, almoft 
following each other in thefe lines of Statius ; on the common 
partridge being called Jiarna to this day by the Italians, and 
upon the Romans having had otherwife no name for our part- 
ridge (which is a very common bird in Italy), if Jiurnus is fup- 
pofed to fignify only a Jlarling. 
h I cannot therefore but think that pernix, according to the reading in 
the paflage of Silius Italicus, which I have before cited, is the true Latin 
name for this bird, and that it was called perdix by thofe only who un- 
derftood Greek. 
* See Olina. 
Yol, LXIII. O o 
that 
