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A NEW-YEAR'S-DAY EPISTLE ON THE
P,

SINGING OF birds.

MR EDITOR,

WITH a few distinguished exceptions, the Naturalists of the day are mere word-makers, spending the hours which their illustrious predecessors would have devoted to patient observation, in scraping together "odds and ends" of barbarized Greek and mongrelized Latin from the dog-eared and worm-eaten ruins of their school lexicons. A marked and alarming indication of the depraved taste of the age in which encouragement is held But to such conceited language-mongers who deal in lengthy catalogues of terms fresh from the word-manufactory, and laboriously dove-tailed by the first artisans in that line of work. I confess, Sir, that I never look into books which are stuffed with these locust-clouds of picced and patch-work terminology, without thinking of the similar productions of those ingenious poets who squared their verses into the forms of adzes, hearts, and triangles, and left the consideration of sentiment and imagery to bards of minor

note.

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But plain English, you say, will never go down, if it be not seasoned with a sauce piquante of Greek, without which no confidence can, in these days, be placed in a writer's learning. Besides, Greek eye-traps have the advantage of setting agog the fancies of such as understand them not, and also of keeping alive among your northern clergy the knowledge of Alpha Beta, which, with other heathenish learning acquired at college, they might be in danger of forgetting, were a short spelling exercise not occasionally thrown in their way, to remind them that there is such a book as the Greek Testament. With this view, I have selected two short lessons, which, you may perceive, are as highly applicable to the singing of birds as the remarks I have already hazarded.

The first is from the sage historian Polybius, who, in his first book and fifth chapter, hath these memorable words:

Αμα και το χρήσιμον και It is somewhat strange that our cri- το τερπνον λαβειν.” The next is from tical philosophers, who have hunted the great Aristotle, and is an admirdown so many of the intellectual able enforcement of what has been apleasures of man, should never have bove inculcated. The passage is in unbushed this singular species. It his Politics, book eight, chapter third, might, indeed, afford matter for a long where he saith wisely, "To de ENTE chapter to Mr Alison or the learned πανταχε το χρησιμον ήκιστα άρμόττει Mr David Prentice, in which they τοις μεγαλοψύχοις και τοις ἐλεύθεροις. could luxuriate in a rich and varied Επει δε φανερον ποτερον τοῖς ἐθεσιν, ἡ τῷ field of illustration, as yet fresh and untouched by the inquirers after taste λόγῳ παιδευτεον είναι και περι το δῶμα and beauty, and I hope it will not be πρότερον, ή την διάνοιαν, δῆλον, ἐκ τε των overlooked in their next editions. The ότι παραδοτέον τα τον παίδας γυμναστική, relish for the manufactured jargon of και παιδοτριβική τε τον γας ή μεν ποιαν the modern naturalist, however, seems, τινα παιδί την έξιν το σόματος, ή δε τα like that for opium and tobacco, to be wholly acquired, an opinion which έργα.” any of the uncontaminated may readily verify, by looking into the article Annalosa of the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, or the article Entomology in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, by Dr W. Elford Leach, who ranks as the supreme dictator of the illuminati. Thither I refer such

of your readers as love to dwell on the beauties of unintelligible names for ants, and spiders, and every other thing that moveth on the earth or in the waters. To me they are a forbidding and nauseous drug, as these crude

VOL. IV.

Under the shelter of these great authorities, (for you can never suppose

ly for "Greek invocations to call fools into a circle,")* I proceed to remark, that the opinion which is generally held, that the singing of birds is referable to imitation as much as human ful, if not groundless. It is not true, language is, seems to be very doubtwhich Kircher asserts, that nestlings fed by the hand, and kept at a distance from other birds, will never at

I would have recourse to them mere

As You Like It, Act II.
C

tempt to sing, no more than that a human infant in similar circumstances would speak Hebrew or High Dutch. Several marked instances of the contrary have fallen under my observation. A sky-lark was taken from the nest before it was fledged, and reared by the hand in town, where it could not hear any of its own species; yet, when it was grown, its song was not distinguishable from those in the wild state. Could it have acquired these notes, while in the nest, from the parent bird, in a similar way to what Darwin supposed infants to acquire a taste for Hogarth's line of beauty by fondling on their mothers' bosom? and could it have retained this musique de berceau in its memory for more than six months without ever attempting-as the birdsmen express it even to record?

There is only one fact known to me which could sanction the affirmative, and it is so anomalous, that little can be rested on it; but, as it is curious, I may state it for your amusement. The celebrated Dr Rush of Philadelphia was called to visit the Countess of L-L-L-, who was in a high fever. In her delirium she uttered a number of outlandish speeches, which one of the attendants recognized to be pure Welch. The Doctor was struck with the singularity of the circumstance, as the Countess, he was told, did not understand a single word of Welch. On making inquiry, he found that she had been nursed by a Welch woman, but had been removed before she could articulate a word, and had not heard Welch spoken from that time till she had been seized with fever. But a solitary and anomalous fact like this will not authorize us to conclude that the young skylark retained, in like manner, the song of its field-nurse.

But I shall be told that birds may be taught the notes of different species, and that bulfinches + and starlings, which possess no natural notes

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at all, can, by instruction, be made superior to most other cage birds. It does not, however, seem to be good logic to say, that, because a man is capable of learning French or English, he cannot cry, nor smile, nor groan, without having heard his nurse do so. The artificial notes, also, which birds in this manner acquire are so far as my observation reaches-seldom altogether perfect, and may, in most cases, be recognized as imitations. This remark is confirmed by the fact, that mock-birds, which may be considered as having no natural song of their own, cannot go through with any set of notes without introducing tones foreign to the notes they are imitating. The mock-bird of this country, whose retired habits cause it to be but little attended to, may be heard hurrying over in succession the song of the wren, wagtail, and sky-lark, the twitter of the swallow, and the chirp of the sparrow and chaffinch, but it often introduces a deep harsh note which belongs to no other native bird, though it has a distant resemblance to the chirr of the white-throat. Indeed, the mock-bird, both in its size and colour, and even in its habits, is so like the white-throat, as to be often confounded with it.

Those who maintain that the songs of birds are acquired by individual imitation, find no little difficulty in accounting for the uniformity which prevails among the notes of the several species. They tell us that the young birds learn the song of the parent birds by associating exclusively with them before they can provide for themselves, and that, afterwards, they frequent the same places as the rest of their kind; but, unfortunately for this explanation, it happens that song birds become silent after their young are hatched.-(Pennant, Brit. Zool. I. 138.) The same accurate observer is of opinion, that it is chiefly the young red-breasts which entertain us so agreeably with their songs in autumn and winter.-Neither is it true that song birds associate exclusively with their own species, and, although they did, will they never hear other birds? And, if so, how does it happen, since they are by the theory so prone to

ring-ousel a starling, but that bird has not the faculty of imitating human speech, as the starling has.

imitation that they never, except in the case of mock-birds, intermingle the notes of others with those peculiar to themselves? In one instance only I observed a wild linnet repeat, in a very confused manner, some of the notes of the woodlark; but I am convinced such an occurrence is very unusual, though, upon the principles combated, every bird should be a polyglot.

That this uniformity prevails among the same species in the most distant countries, we may infer from the remark of Bruce, that the skylarks in Abyssinia have the same notes as those of Scotland; and Mr Salt, who bristles up most erinaceously a. gainst the Scottish traveller as to most other things, agrees with him in this. * Dr Johnson tells us, indeed, that the nightingales which accidentally visit Caledonia have not the same sweetness of song as those in the south; but the Doctor's prejudices were always jaundicing his observations. Nay, it is likely that this was only an ill-natured conjecture, for the visits of the nightingale to the northern parts of the island are rare indeed. I only know of one instance; it was in 1808, when a single pair were discovered preparing a nest in Eglinton woods. The Scottish poets have, indeed, sometimes introduced the nightingale. Gawin Douglas says,—

"To bete thare amouris of thare nychtis
bale

The merle, the mauys, and the nychtingale,
With mirry notis myrthfully furth brist."

VIRGIL, Xii. Prolouge.

And one of the Scottish pastoral songs begins,

"Twas simmer, and saftly the breezes war blawin',

An' sweetly the nightingale sang from the tree."

But poets are seldom good authority in natural history. With respect to

The cavils of Mr Salt and Lord Valentia against Bruce always put me in mind of the fly criticising the dome of St Paul's. Bruce was a man of honour, though, perhaps, given to the use of strong language and vivid description; but it was not surely very honourable in those cavillers to impeach his veracity without producing any proofs, on the contrary, affording themselves the strongest confirmation of his de

tails.

Johnson's remark, however, I think it right to state, that I have frequently imagined I observed something like a different dialect among the same species of song-birds in different counties, and even in places a few miles distant from each other. This difference, I think, is more remarkable in the chaffinch, hedge-sparrow, and yellowhammer, then in the more melodious species. But the aspect of strangeness in the places where they are heard may often suggest this when there is no real difference of note or tone. As

sociation, we know, is all powerful.

The uniformity of the notes which, in the same species, is so little varied, may, to a certain extent, arise from a peculiar conformation of the parts about the larynx; but it appears proba ble, when we consider the case of mock-birds, and the songless starlings and bulfinches taught to speak and sing, that there must be some other cause which is to us unknown. Much might be done to ascertain the principle upon which this proceeds and the inquiry is assuredly curious;-but · it is of the utmost moment towards success, that all hypothesis be rigorously discarded. Want of attention to this led the Honourable Daines Barrington to advance many unfounded opinions about song-birds, in a very ingenious and interesting paper published in the Philosophical Transactions, (Vol. LXIII.)

How far anatomical research may elucidate any part of this subject I know not, and I am ignorant whether it is even mentioned by Blumenbach, or Cuvier, or Sir Everard Home, and I have not their works by me to refer to. One fact of this sort has come to my knowledge, and it is a very cu rious one. It was first stated in Clayton's Letters from Virginia, (Miscell. Curiosa, III. 291.) Mr Clayton and Dr Moulm discovered, that in birds, contrary to what takes place in man, and in quadrupeds, there is almost a direct passage from one ear to the other, so that, if the drum of both ears of a bird be pierced, water, when poured in, will pass from the one to the other. There is no cochlea, but a small passage which opens into a cavity formed by two plates of bone, that constitute a double scull all round the head. The outer plate of bone is supported by many hundreds of small thread-like columns, or rather fibres.

Now, this cochleous passage was observed to be much larger in singing birds, than in others that did not sing; so very remarkably so, that any person who has been once shewn this, may easily judge by the head what bird is a singing bird, though he were before completely ignorant of the bird or its habits. Might not this curious fact be useful in ascertainig whether the antediluvian birds, whose bones are found imbedded in the rocks of the Paris basin, and elsewhere, were birds of song, and hymned the infant world with their music?

Mr Barrington, I conceive, is only poetically right in his opinion concerning the motive which induces birds to sing. All accounts, indeed, of motives, and the actions arising from them, are necessarily obscure, and more disputes, which it is impossible to decide, have arisen on this, than any other subject connected with the phenomena of life. Actions, indeed, are some times very anomalous, even though the motives whence they arose are apparent. For example, sapling plants of ash, or any other tree which produces winged seeds, frequently seen growing on the lofty corners of ruinous walls, have been known to send down suckers to the earth from a height of many feet. (Lord Kames' Gent. Farmer, Part II.) Now, here the presence of a motive, namely, the desire of procuring nourishment is very apparent; but it is singular, that a supernumerary shoot should have been dispatched so far in search of it. It is asked, then, what induces birds to sing? The poets, ever on the scarch for embellishment at the expence of truth, tell us, that they are induced by love; and that their songs are intended either to win the affections of their mates, or to cheer them during the fatiguing period of incubation. Appearances, it must be confessed, are in favour of this opinion, and few poets attempt to go much farther; but it seems to have as little

Mr Clayton says, that, in extensive researches into comparative anatomy, he never found any quadruped with an ear like a bird except the mole, which is well known to be quick of hearing. Moles are also supposed to have the peculiarity of a sixth sense. (See Ray, Hist. and Pennant's British Zoology.)

foundation as the Loves of the Plants, which have been placed in so fanciful a light by Dr Darwin.

Those who maintain this poetical opinion, will find it no easy matter to account for the singing of the blackbird, tit-lark, willow-wren, and several other song birds, which become silent at midsummer, but resume their notes in September, (British Zoology, I. 138.) And the red-breast continues to sing all winter. I have observed several anomalous instances this season, (1818,) equally unaccountable on the combated supposition. On the 26th of October, for instance, a very fine day, I heard a thrush in the morning singing in an orchard as sprightly as if it had been in April, and again, in the evening of the same day, I heard another thrush singing on the banks of a river at some miles distance from the orchard. Later still, namely, on the 8th December, I observed a wren singing in the same orchard at day-break, and it was answered by a hedge-sparrow. Now, this late singing cannot surely be referred to love,-less so, if Pennant's opinion be just, that it is chiefly the birds which have been hatched in the preceding summer which sing at this season. His notion is not exclusively true, for I know that it was not young thrushes I heard last October, since they have a particular note, easily distinguishable when they first attempt to sing, as I have repeatedly observed. The passage oftenest repeated by young thrushes is,

and occasionally,

Perhaps it may be said that, the old birds sing in autumn, from association, because it resembles spring. For, though spring is all youth, all verdure, and autumn wears the aspect of decline, and woods and fields, instead of lively green, display nothing but sombre shades of yellow and brown ;

yet, the temperature of the air is nearly the same, and food is equally, if not more abundant. In the case of the young birds singing in autumn, the poetical theorists will not surely ascribe it to a premature and inane crogy. If they do, they must accuse the Author of Nature of implanting desires whose gratification fails of their aim.

According to this account, also, we should suppose, that those birds which are the most amorous, would have the most pleasing song, which does not appear to be the case; for the sparrow has nothing but an unmusical yelp, though it is proverbial for salacity, being the bird of Venus.

—Πατρὸς δὲ δόμον λιπίισα
Χρύσιον ἦλθες,

"Αγε υποζεύξασα, καλοὶ δέ σ' ἄγον
Ωκέες στραβοί, πτέρυγας μελαίνας
Πυκνά δινεύντες ἀπ ̓ ὡράν, αιθερος διὰ
μέσσω.

SAPPHO, ES Afgodiruv.

Of my darts and of my arrows,
Of my mother's doves and sparrows.

COWLEY.

The dove must be confessed to have a kind of amorous plaint; but from this no general conclusion can well be drawn.

To confirm the position contended for, I would here have also mentioned a remark which some naturalists have made, namely, that in warm climates song-birds are rarely to be found, but that I entertain strong doubts of its truth. Bruce, as has already been mentioned, observed the song of the sky-lark in Abyssinia; Vaillant was charmed with the music of birds in the wilds of southern Africa, and Adanson tells us, that the swallows which he found in Senegal had not become silent in their passage from Europe. Nay, all the eastern poets introduce the music of the groves as an indispensable accompaniment in their finest descriptions. The pastoral poet of Israel says, "The time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land," (Cant. ii. 12.) Hafiz, also, the Persian Moore; the author of the Ramayuna; and the dramatist who wrote Sacontala, are loud in their praises of the music of birds. In the Koran also, and in the Arabian Talcs, it is

often mentioned. Not to over-multiply proofs, I shall merely mention two other instances. The summer red-bird, or Tanager, which inhabits the woods on the Mississippi, and is remarkable for laying up a large granary of maize for winter provision, is a delightful song bird, and makes the forests resound with its summer warblings, (Arctic Zoology, II. p. 369.) The American mock-bird, also, which resembles our thrush in size and colour, is, perhaps, the first songster of the woods, having a variety, fulness, and melody, in its own notes, while it has the faculty of imitating the notes of all other birds, from the humming-bird to the eagle. Mr Pennant (Arctic Zoology, II. 334) heard a caged one imitate the mewing of a cat, and the creaking of a sign in a high wind. Its habits are similar to those of the red-breast, as it commonly sings from houses. It is the nightingale of the chimney-tops, and the trees near to West Indies, for it makes no distinction between day and night in its singing. What is still more singular, it not only sings but dances, performing a great many whimsical gesticulations, and throwing somersets like the tumbler pigeon. With these instances before us, we will not again listen to the unfounded calumny, that tropical birds, though guilty of having splendid plumage, are mute and songless.

There is one case which seems to favour the view that birds sing from love, namely, that the black-cock (peculiar, if I mistake not, to the Scottish Highlands) repairs to an eminence, and crowing aloud, gathers to him all the females in the neighbourhood. The Canadian partridge is said to do the same. But this can scarcely be said to be like the usual singing of birds, no more than the loud call of the black-bird during in. cubation can be called so.

It is singular that no large fowl is known to sing, though the crowing of the cock in the morning may, perhaps, without impropriety, be called singing. I have also observed, that the crow (Corvus cornix) is sometimes heard in a calm morning to utter a peculiar plaintive note, very different, indeed, from its usual croaking; but I can give you no idea of it by any description.

If this paper had not been already to

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