152 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
KEMAEKABLE VARIATION IN THE SONG OF A WOOD WEEN 
[Sylvia sylvicola, Penn.) ; 
WITH A FEW REMAEKS ON SONG IN BIRDS. 
On the 18th of June, 1870, when passing by a wood near Bick- 
leigh, about six miles from Plymouth, I was startled at hearing 
a remarkable variation in the song of a Wood Wren (^Sylvia sylvi- 
cola, Penn.) that was hopping and flitting about some trees in the 
wood. Sometimes its note would be just that of the species, the 
reiterated twee alone ; but often, after commencing with this, 
the bird would go on with a strain that seemed an imitation of the 
loud chattering notes of the Wren rather than those of any other 
bird, and I consequently concluded they were borrowed from this 
species. I listened again and again to the peculiar song with much 
astonishment, as we so seldom hear any bird in a state of nature 
copy the notes of another, though in confinement it is common 
enough for several species to imitate more or less the songs of 
others that they constantly hear, and blend the strange notes with 
their own. Still the fact of captive birds doing this does not prove 
the opinion held by Colonel Montagu, that the notes of birds are 
innate, not acquired, to be untrue, since animals when wild and 
when in confinement, from being subjected to most unlike con- 
ditions, act very difi*erently. An exception is said to be necessary 
to prove a rule, and as such I would regard the remarkable 
variation in the song of the Bickleigh Wood Wren ; for I en- 
tirely agree with the great ornithologist of Devon in considering 
the notes of wild birds as innate, not acquired; no, not even by 
the young from the parent birds. It would be useless for me to 
repeat here the very excellent arguments Colonel Montagu uses in 
support of this opinion, since anyone can find them in the " Orni- 
thological Dictionary." He docs not, however, make use of one 
which seems to me to have some force. It is this. The Cuckoo is 
hatched and reared by half a dozen difi'erent species, yet it main- 
tains its own notes, unvaried and unmixed ; but did young birds 
acquire their notes from the old ones, and not have them innately, 
