VOCAL MUSIC. 
55 
Ca. 
Xr. XIII. 
ass etnblage during the autumn . 34 Hence it is not at all 
^Prising that male birds should continue singing for 
1<J ir own amusement after the season for courtship is 
over. 
Singing is to a certain extent, as shewn in a previous 
p la Pter, an art, and is much improved by practice. 
>lrc is can be taught various tunes, and even the un- 
J?®l°dious sparrow has learnt to sing like a linnet. 
le y acquire the song of their foster-parents, and 
betimes that of their neighbours . 36 All the common 
° n gsters belong to the Order of Insessores, and their 
Y °cal organs are much more complex than those ot 
'nost other birds ; yet it is a singular fact that some 
0 the Insessores, such as ravens, crows, and magpies, 
the proper apparatus , 37 though they never sing, 
not naturally modulate their voices to any great 
^tent. Hunter asserts 38 that with the true songsters 
he muscles of the larynx are stronger in the males 
. 01 in the females ; but with this slight exception there 
110 difference in the vocal organs of the turn sexes, 
alt! ‘OUgh t!ie maleg 0 f most S pecies sing so much better 
atl d more continuouslv than the females. 
It ' 
Tl 
a *d do 
ae 
is remarkable that only small birds properly sing. 
Australian genus Menura, however, must be ex- 
^Pted ; f or tdre Menura Alberti, which is about the size 
t( . a half-grown turkey, not only mocks other birds, but 
lts own whistle is exceedingly beautiful and varied.” 
Ie males congregate and form “ corroborying places,” 
lere they sing, raising and spreading their tails like 
35 bloyd, ‘Game Birds of Sweden,’ 1867, p. 25. 
3 s r^nington, ibid. p. 264. Beobstein, ibid. s. 5. 
3 , , do la Malle gives a curious instance (‘ Annales des Sc. Nat. 
iu p er l es ’ ZlJ olog. tom. x. p. 118) of some wild blackbirds in his garden 
37 a * s w tieh naturally learnt from a caged bird a republican ail. 
3 8 ® isllo p, in * Todd s' Cyclop, of Anat. and Phys.’ vol. iv. P- H96. 
■'ts stated by Barrington in ‘Philosoph. Transact.’ 1773, p. 2b2. 
