The Colorado statesman., 1913-06-21
AS CHILDREN LEARN vAN|TYS BIG TOLL
How Young Birds Are Taught to
Sing.
1t Is Mainly by Initiating Parents, But
While Mother Is Chief Instructor
of Children, Father Is Princi-
pal Tutor of Baby Birds.

Young birds learn to sing. as chill
dren learn to talk, for the most part
by initiating their parents, but while
the mother is the chief instructor of
baby children, the father is the princi-
pal tutor of baby birds, Harper's
Weekly says. The power of. mimicry
is strongly developed in many birds,
like our mocking birds, the English
starlings, and the Indian minas, to say
nothing of parrots and cockatoos.
Some years ago there was a glossy
black hillmina in the London zoo,
which used to say: Il syi" and "all
raight," with perfect cockney accent,
picked up from a worthy keeper, and
parrots can learn Hindustani as easily
as the parrot in "Vert-vert' learned
French.
The mocking bird seems quite con-
sciously to initiate other birds. Many
less conspicuous songsters do the
same. The little English redbreast,
who is the true robin, has been heard
singing the brilliant song of the
thrush. The English blackbird. one of
the finest feathered choristers, has on
two or three occasions been caught
initiating the CHEEKY call of chanti-
cleer. An English skylark has bor-
rowed the homely little song of the
chaffinch, and converted it into soaring
skylark rhythms. But quite apart from
this random borrowing, which, how
ever, shows the perfection of ear, and
of the faculty of mimicry, there is the
regular study and practice by which
young birds learn their own proper
songs, as well as their call notes, their
fight songs and the whole repertory of
bird music Certain birds have been
heard giving regular singing lessons to
their nestlings. Ovenbords, the little
brown, gold-crested ground warblers
which fill our woods during May and
June with their excited call: "Teacheri
teacher! teacher! teacher!" give their
little ones systematic singing lessons,
while the youngsters are still in the
brown, Dutch-oven shaped nest on the
ground, that has gained the birds their
name.
First the father and mother bird
sing duet; then the little ones try to
initiate it; the parents go over 1t
again, and the youngsters try it again.
After while the dinner question
presses and the elders go off to hunt
for grubs and caterpillars. While they
are away the young ones practice their
singing lesson, going over it again and
again. and then singing it once more
after their parents on their return
English naturalists have noted very
similar lessons given in the month of
August by the familiar and attractive
yellow bunting, so abundant in the
hedge rows and so popular person
age in folklore. The song of the vel
lowhammer" has for generations been
rendered thus: "A little bit of bread
and no cheese!" Then the young yel
lowhammer tries to copy it, haltingly
at first, and perhaps gets as far as "a
Iittle-bit of bread-and no" and
then stops, not remembering. or not
feeling equal to, the cheese. The par
ent sings again, and the youngster
again repeats, still in a weak and un-
certain way; but as August merges
into September and the haws swell
on the boughs. the young ones song
grows stronger and more assured, till
at last he graduates with the full mel
ody.
But not all young birds get such
regular lessons. Many try the songs
themselves, after listening to their
fond fathers, and queer, stumbling at
tempts they make at first very much
like the efforts of children learning to
talk. Imitation, therefore, counts for
much. Thus the eggs of the English
common linnet have been taken from
the nest, and placed under broodipg
skylarks, wood larks and titlarks; and
in such case the young linnets have
learned the song of their foster par
ents. But imitation is not everything.
Quite apart from singing lessons and
mimicry, song seems to be as natural
for birds as the true baby talk is for
children who only begin consciously to
initiate their parents after many
months of "goo-goo"ing and "ba-ba-
ba"-ing on their own accounts. The
European cuckoo, for example, is no.
torious for laying her eggs in other
birds nests, generally those of the
quiet little hedge sparrow, just as the
American cowbird lays hers in the
nest of the wood-warblers. Yet young
cuckoos learn to call, though they
never know their parents, and there Is
no record of their ever repeating the
song of their involuntary foster par
ents, the hedge sparrows.