Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-03-29
Bird-SOngs.

| Atlantic
1t is an indiscretion ever 10 say OF a
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 yellow-rumped
warbler, having listened to 1t many
times,-a slight, characterless thing,
sharp and unmusical. But coming down
Mount Willard one day in June, heard
a warbler's song which brought me to
! sudden halt. 1t was new and beautiful,
more beautiful, it seemed at the mo-
ment, than any warbler's song | had
ever heard. What could it be? a little
patient waiting (while the black-iiies
and mosquitoes ''came upon me to eat
up my ilesh'D, and the singer appeared
in full view,-my old acquaintance, the
yellow-rumped warbler.
With all this strong tendency on the
part of birds TO vary their music, how is
it that there is still such a degree of uni
formity, SO 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? In short, how do birds come by
their music? Is it all matter of in
stinct inherited habit, or do they learn
| il? The answer seems to be that birds
sing as children talk. by simple imita-
ton. Nobody imagines that the infant
is born with language printed upon
] 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, he
will infallibly speak that, and nothing
else. And careful experiments have
shown that the same is true of birds.
Taken from the nest just after they leave
the shell. they invariably sing, not their
own so-called natural song, but the
song of their foster-parents; provided,
of course, that this is not anything be-
You'd their physical capacity. The no.
torious house sparrow (our English"
SPARROW, in his wild or semi-domesti-
Gated state, never makes a musical
sound; but if he is taken in hand early
enough, he may be taught to sing, so il
is said, nearly as well as the canary,
Bechstein relates that a Paris clergyman
had two of these sparrows whom he had
trained to speak and, among other things
TO recite several of the shorter command
ments; and the narrative goes on to say
that it was sometimes very comical,
when. tho pair were disputing over their
food, to hear one gravely admonish the
other, Thou shalt not steal!' 1t would
be interesting to know why creatures
thus gifted do not sing of their own no.
ton. With their amiability and sweet
peaceableness they ought to be carroll
ing the whole year round.
This question of the transmission of
songs from one generation to another Is
of course, part of the general subject
of animal intelligence, a subject much
discussed in these days on account of
its bearing upon the modern doctrine
concerning the relation of man to the
inferior orders.
We have nothing to do with such a
theme, but it may not be out of place
to suggest to preachers and moralists
that here is striking and unhackneyed
illustration of the force of early train
ing. 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.. Barrington's linnets, for example,
after being educated under titlark,
was put into q room with two birds of
his own species. where he heard them
sing freely every day for three months.
He did not try to learn anything from
them, however, but kept on singing
what the titlark had taught him, quite
unconscious of anything singular or un-
patriotic in such a course. This law,
that impressions received during the
immaturity of the powers become the
unalterable habit of the after life. is per-
haps the most momentous of all the laws
in whose power we find ourselves Some
times we are tempted to call it cruel.
But, if it were annulled, this would be
strange world. What hurly-burly
would be no more telling them by their
notes. Thrushes and jays, wreDs and
chickadees, finches and warblers, all
would be singing one grand medley.
II Between these two opposing tenden-
, cics, one urging to variation, the other
to permanence Qor Nature herself is
, half radical, half conservative), the
language of birds has grown from rude
! beginnings to its present beautiful diver
sity; and whoever lives a century o.
millenniums hence will listen TO must,
: such as we in this day can only dream
of. Inappreciably but ceaselessly tn,
work goes on. Here and there is borr
a master-singer, a feathered genius, ant
every generation makes its own addition
to the glorious inheritance.