The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1883-04-11
BIRD-SONGS.

IL Is an I0QlsCr6tlOn 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 some-
thing not even hinted at III your de-
scription. thought I knew the song
OF the yellow-rumped warbler, having
listened to it many times,-s slight,
chanActerless thing, sharp and I'M
musical. But coming down Mount
Willard one day in June, / heard g
Warbler's song which brought me to
a sudden halt. twas new and bead
tiful,-more beautiful it seemed
the moment, than any warbleT's
song l had ever heard. What conld
it be? A little patient waiting while
the lack fliee and mosquitoes ''came
upon me to eat up my fiesh"), and
the singer appeared in full view. -
my old acquaintance, the yellow
rumpsd warbler.
With all this strong tendency on
the part of birds to vary their music,
how Is it that trere is still such &c
gree of uniformity, 80 that, as we
have said. every species may be re-
cOgnized by It's notes? Why does
every red-eye viIeo sing in one way,
and every white-eye1 vireo in
another? Who teaches the young
ctipper to trill, and the young linnet
TO MARBLE? In short, how do birds
come by their music2 Is it all mat
ter of instinct, inherited habit. or do
thsy learn it? The answer seems to
be that birds sing ss children talk. by
simple imitation. Nobody imagines
that the infant is born with q Ian.
guage printed on his brain. The
father and mother may never have
known a word of any tongue except
the English, but if the child is
brought up to hear only Chinese. be
will infallibly speak that and nothing
else. And careful experiments have
shown that the Psme is true OF birds.
Taken from the same nest just after
they leave the shell, they invariably
sing, not their own so-eslled natural
song, but the song of heir foster
parents; provided. OF course, that this
Is not anything beyond their pbysi-
cal capacity. The notorious house
sparrow Tour English" sparrow, in
bis wild or semi-domesticsted state,
never makes a musical sound; but il
be is taken in hand early enough, he
may be taught to sing, 80 it is said,
nearly as we'll as the canary. Bechr
stein relates that Paris clergyman
had two of these sparroWs whom be
had trained to speak, and, among
other things, to reoite several of the
shorter commandments; and the mar
ratlve goes on to say that it was
sometimes very oomioal, when the
pair were disputing over their food,
to hear one graVely admonish the
other, Thou shalt not stesll'' 1t
would be interesting to know Why
creatures thus gifted do not sing OF
their own motion. With their smis-
bility and sweet peaceablenees they
ought to be caroling the whole year
round.
This question Of the transmission OF
eongs from one generation to another
is, Of course, part of the general
subject of animal intelligence, sub
jeot much discussed in these days Oh
account of its bearing upon the doc.
trine concerning the relation of man
to the interior orders.
We have nothing to do with such
the me, bat it may not be out
of place to suggest to preachers and
moralist5 that here lie a striking and
unhsckneyed illustration OF the force
OF early training. Birds sing by i'm
itation, it is true but as a rule they
initiate only the notes which they
hear during the first few weeks after
they are Matched. One OF Mr.. Bar
rington's linnets, for example, after
being educated under titlark, was
put into a room with two birds Of his
OVID species, where be heard then
sing freely every day Tor three
months. He made no attempt to
learn anything from them, however,
but kept on singing what the titlark
had taught him, quite unconscious oil
anything singular or uDpatriotic in
such course. This law, that impress
Eions received during the immatnrity
OF powers become the unslterable
habit OF after life, is perhaps the most
momentous of all the laws in whose
power We find ourselves. Sometimes
we are tempted to call it cruel. But.
II It we're Rnnulled. this would be q
strange world. What q hurly-burly
we should have among the birds!
There would be no more telling them
By their notes. Thrushes and jays.
Wrens and chiekadees, fincbes and
Wsrblers, slI would be singing one
grand medley.
Between these two opposing ten
denotes, one urging to variation. the
other to permsnence [ for Nature her
self is half radical, half conservative,
tue language OF birds has grown from
rude beginnings to its pvesent beRuti-
ful diversity; and who ever lives .
century of millenniums hence will
listen to music such as we in this day
can only dream Of. InsppreSiAbly