Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-03-30
DIRD-SONGS.


lbIbdiolu loIIt1 III NpIiI hlltilllc
1t is an indiscretion ever to say of
bird that he has only such and such
notes. You may have been his friend for
years, but the next time you go into the
woods he will likely enough put you to
shame by singing something not even
limited at in your description. / thought
| knew the song OF the ycllow-r rumped
warbler, having listened to it many times,
a slight, characterlcss thing, sharp and
unmusical. But coming down Mount
Willard one day i'll June, | heard war
bler's song which brought me to sudden
haltf 1t was new and beautiful, more
beautiful, it seemed at the moment, than
any warbler's song | had ever heard.
What could it be =? A little patient wait
ing (while the black flies and mosquitoes
'came upon me to eat up my flesh, and
the singer appeared in full view-my old
acquaintance, the yellow-rumped war
bier
With all this strong tendency on the
part of birds to vary their music, how is
it that there is still such degree of uni
formity, 30 that, as we have said, every
species may be recognized by its notes?
Why does every red-eyed vireo sing in
one way. and every white-eyed vireo in
another? Who teaches the young chip
per to trill and the young linnet to war
BILE? Ia short, how do birds come by
their music? Is it all n matter of instinct,
inherited habit, or do they learn it? The
answer seems to be that birds sing as
children talk, by simple imitation. No
body imagines that the infant is born
with language printed upon his brain.
The father and mother may never have
| .,,-1 s -, Al
English, but if the child is brought up to
hear only Chinese, ne will infallibly speak
that, and nothing else. And careful ex-
true of birds. Taken from the nest Just
sing not their own so-callel natural song,
but the song OF their foster-parents pro-
vided, of course that this is not anything
beyond their physical capacity. The no
torious house sparrow (our English"
sparrow, in his wild or sem-domesticated
state, never makes musical sound but
if he is taken in hand early enough, he
may be taught to sing, SO it is said, nearly
as well as the canary. Bechstein relates
that Paris clergyman had two of these
spairows whom he had trained to speak,
and among other things, to recite several
of the shorter commandments and the
narrative goes on to say that it was some
times very comical when the pair were
disputing over their food, to hear one
gravely admonsh the other, Thou shalt
not steal - 1t would be interesting to
know why creatures thus gifted do not
sing of their own motion. With their
amiability and sweet peaceableness they
ought to be caroling the whole year
round.
This question of the transmission OF
songs from one generation to another H. of
course, part of the general subject OF
animal intelligence n subject much dis
cussed i'll these days on account of its
bearing upon the modern doctrine con-
corning the relation of man to the infe-
rior orders.
We have nothing to do with such n
theme, but it may not be out Of place
to suggest to preachers and moralists
that here is u striking and unhackneyed
illustration of the force of early training.
Birds sing by imitation, it is true but as
rule they initiate only the notes which
/ they hear during the first few weeks
after they are Matched. One of Mr.. Bar.
ringtons linnets, for example, after be-
ing educated under titlark, was put in
, to room with two birds of his own spe-
cies, where he heard them sing freely
/ every day for three months, He made nc
attempt to learn anything from them,
however, but kept on singing what the
5 titlark had taught him, quite unconscious
of anything singular or unpatriotic IL
} such course. This law, that impressions
: received during the immaturity of the
. powers become the unalterable habit o
Q the after life, is perhaps the most mo
: mentous of all the laws III whose powel
Q we find ourselves. Sometimes we arr
| tempted to call it cruel. But, if it wer'
| annulled, this would be a strange world
< What hurly -burly we should hay,
among the birds There would be III
, more telling them by their notes. Thrush
+ es and jays, wrens and chickadees, tincho
8 and warblers, nll would be singing on
: grand medley.
o Between these two opposing tenden
T. cies, one urging TO variation, the other t.