riie Evolution

of Bird-Song'

^

FOR THE PEOPLE

FOR EDVCATION

FORSCIENCE

LIBRARY

OF

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF

NATURAL HISTORY

THE EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

THE

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

WITH

OBSERVATIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF
HEREDITY AND IMITATION

1

BY

CHARLES A. WITCHELL

AUTHOR OF 'the FAUNA OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE'

LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

1896

O

PREFACE

I WISH to mention in this place my deep sense of
obligation to those kind helpers who have given
me notes on the subjects discussed in this book.
I wish also to acknowledge my gratitude to the late
Professor Harker, F.L.S., whose lamented death
recently occurred. He, from the first, encouraged
me to continue my observation of bird-song ; and,
in 1890, he devoted a considerable amount of time
to harmoniously arranging the results of my in-
vestigations.

When I state that Mr. J. E. Harting generously
offered to look over the proof-sheets of this work
(which offer was, of course, gladly accepted), the
public will appreciate the extent of my indebtedness
to an author and editor so accomplished. The first

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

32 pages had then been returned to the printer;
but, in revising the remainder, I continually per-
ceived the great advantages derived from Mr.
Harting's perusal.

However novel or otherwise may be the theories
stated in this book, I can at least claim that, so far
as I am concerned, they are absolutely original, all
of them having been committed to writing, though,
in some instances, not under their present titles,
before I consulted any person, or any book, in regard
to them.

CHARLES A. WITCHELL.

London, April 1896.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ""i.^i

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE

Darwin's opinion that the voice resulted from involuntary move-
ments of muscles — Combat the chief occasion for such move-
ments— Prevalence of a puff or hiss as a menace — Accidental
cries of newts . . . . . . 12-21

CHAPTER n

ALARM-NOTES

Combat-cry serviceable as an alarm — Repetition of single alarm -
cries, in terror — Theory of evolution of certain rattling cries
by such repetitions — Discrimination of enemies evidenced by
cries and deportment — Inherited knowledge of alarm-cries 22-32

CHAPTER HI

THE INFLUENCE OF COMBAT

Rivalry and emulation — Among polygamous species, selection
dependent on combat — The snapping of bill as a menace —
Chaffinch's war-note — Singing during combat . . 33-40

Viu E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

CHAPTER IV

THE CALL-NOTE

PAGES

Erroneous descriptions of call-notes — Chaffinch's cry phik not
a call-note — Distress-cries of young are of use as call-notes
when the birds leave the nest — Influence of gregariousness
and of fear — Absence of call-notes from the songs of extrava-
gant singers : prevalence of them in songs of inferior singers 41-48

CHAPTER V

THE SIMPLEST SONGS

Repetition of call-notes in the breeding season — Construction of
strains by this method — Examples — Call-notes concluding
spring songs of skylark — Movements of wings during song
— Repetition of same intervals of pitch . . . 49-58

CHAPTER VI

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH BIRD-SONG

Songs are generally uttered by males : exceptions — Not until birds
have attained full size: exceptions — Most frequently at
morning and evening : influence of weather — Tendency to
rise in pitch with vehemence — Only small birds properly
sing — Singers arboreal birds generally — Effect of living amid
foliage : on size, hearing, and voice — Accent in songs —
Singers clad in sober hues — Development of the eyes in
detecting danger — Necessity of leisure — Labours of parent-
birds — Laborious and stealthy birds habitually poor in song
— Flight in song ; for purposes of display — Fluttering of wings
a means of address — Ventriloquism — Singing in chorus . 59-85

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII

THE INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY IN THE PERPETUATION OF
THE CRIES OF BIRDS

. , . r • • PAGES

Absolute inheritance of cries m plovers, common fowl, duck, swan,
pheasant, etc. — Family cries — Cries of allied young more
alike than those of allied adults — The cahs of the crows :
heard in starling and jay — Similarity between starling and
thrushes — Rattling alarm of mistle-thrush, modified in black-
bird, ousel, song -thrush, fieldfare, and American robin —
Similarity of occasions of utterance of alarms by blackbird and
European robin — Similarities traced in call-notes of birds of
the thrush family : also between their songs — Prevalence of
imitation — The warblers — Particular cry common to nightin-
gale, willow-warbler, and chiffchafif — Similar alarm-croaks of
nightingale, sedge- warbler, and lesser whitethroat — Recapitu-
lation— Similarities between notes of wagtails — Songs of tree-
pipit and meadow-pipit described : similarity to that of sky-
lark— Larks of three continents, with the same manner of
song — Family resemblances in the buntings — Resemblance
between call -notes of yellow bunting and greenfinch in
flight — Notes of the finches — Canary has family traits — Tell
tell cries of house -sparrow and greenfinch — Similar cries
of young chaffinch and young house-sparrow — Various other
orders mentioned ...... 86-139

CHAPTER VIII

VARIATION IN BIRD-VOICES : ITS CAUSES AND EFFECTS

Prevalence of variation — Instances mentioned by authors —
Variation in songs of blackbird, yellow-hammer, chaffinch,
robin, house-sparrow, and cuckoo — Illustrated in the robin's
alarm ....... 140-158

EVOLUTION OF BIRDSONG

CHAPTER IX

THE INFLUENCE OF IMITATION IN RELATION TO BIRD-SONG

PAGES

Imitation by dogs and other animals — The notes of some birds
wholly perpetuated by imitation ; of others wholly by inherit-
ance— Observations of authors on the mimicry of birds —
House-sparrow with lark's song, and other instances — Pos-
sible effects of imitation — Interesting similarities observable :
between notes of birds and sounds produced by elements — the
music of the streams — by insects, by quadrupeds, by birds —
General observations — Chief subjects imitated by various
birds — thrushes, robins, skylarks, sedge -warblers — showed
influence of arrival of summer migrants — Full records of
songs of thrush, robin, skylark, starling, sedge - warbler,
redstart, nightingale, marsh-warbler, wheatear, goldcrest,
whitethroats, nuthatch, reed -bunting, stonechat, blackbird,
chaffinch, and others ..... 159-229

CHAPTER X

THE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG

Repetition of intervals of pitch — Our diatonic scale was known
3000 years ago — Curious intervals sung by great titmouse,
chaffinch, and robin — Curious crowing of fowls— Intervals in
blackbirds' alarms — Music of the blackcap, mistle-thrush, and
American robin ...... 230-238

CONCLUSION 239-240

APPENDIX

Transcripts of music sung by blackbirds, thrushes, and skylarks 241-246
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TPIE SUBJECT . . . 247, 248

INDEX ....... 249-253

EERATUM.

Page 103, paragraph 2 :

The cry of the young Nightingale is wrongly described
here. It is not like that of the young Blackbird, but is
a croak similar to the croak of the old Nightingales. I
have already published an account of how this error was
occasioned {Zoologist, No. 673, July, 1897, page 331).

Charles A. Witchell.

was aware of the imitativeness of many musical
species when in captivity, and I was acquainted
with the notes of most of the wild birds found in
Gloucestershire. I listened to this nightingale, at
the distance of a few yards, on eighteen out of the
twenty-one evenings on which he sang. His nest

I

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

CHAPTER IX

THE INFLUENCE OF IMITATION IN RELATION TO BIRD-SONG

Imitation by dogs and other animals— The notes of some birds
whoUv oerpetuated by imitation ; of others wholly by inherit-

PAGES

CONCLUSION 239-240

APPENDIX

Transcripts of music sung by blackbirds, thrushes, and skylarks 241-246

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF TPIE SUBJECT . . . 247, 248

INDEX 249-253

INTRODUCTION

The idea of making a scientific investigation of the
various features of bird-song first occurred to me in
the year 1881, on the occasion of my listening to a
nightingale near Stroud. I observed the frequent
utterance of a little slurred whistle at the com-
mencement of many of its songs — a whistle which
I knew to be uttered by several of its congeners ;
and the songs themselves often seemed to include
a repetition of the notes of birds of other genera
with which I was acquainted. I had never read
anything particular about the songs of birds, but
was aware of the imitativeness of many musical
species when in captivity, and I was acquainted
with the notes of most of the wild birds found in
Gloucestershire. I listened to this nightingale, at
the distance of a few yards, on eighteen out of the
twenty-one evenings on which he sang. His nest

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

having been robbed, he afterwards uttered only one
or two dismal notes at long intervals. I knew the
song of this bird very well ; and afterwards, in the
same season, when listening to other nightingales, I
soon learned the well-known fact that these birds,
like many others, differ individually in their songs
and times of singing. During the next few years
I found no inducement to attempt any deliberate
investigation of the songs of birds; but in 1885
the subject was again brought prominently before
me. A thrush of very remarkable vocal powers
had its nest in our garden, and sang every day in
a high acacia-tree not far from the house. At that
time I was much at home nursing a sick relation,
and in these circumstances the loud clear song of
the thrush was particularly noticeable. Towards
the end of May we observed that on every success-
ive morning the bird began to sing about a minute
and a half earlier, so that we could predict almost
to a minute the time when his first notes w^ould be
heard. His extraordinary endurance led me to
record his periods of song, with the astounding
result that these on one day amounted to an
aggregate of no less than sixteen hours, thus
allowing only three hours of silence during the
whole time of song, which extended from 2.45

INTRODUCTION

A.M. to 9.30 P.M. This thrush was the first wild
one which I heard imitate. Like other persons
fond of the country, I had Hstened to hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of thrushes, and yet had never
noticed their mimicry. The bird in question exactly
reproduced the "call" of the partridge — I mean
the cry heard so often on winter evenings — and
this was the sound which first directed my atten-
tion critically to the character of the song. The
thrush also repeated many cries then well known
to me ; for instance, the most prominent notes of
the house -sparrow, greenfinch, and chaffinch ; the
loud, prolonged call of the blue titmouse ; and notes
of the wagtail, brown wren, and some other birds.
The invalid, a brother who had been my frequent
companion in the country, fully endorsed my
opinion of certain notes of the singer ; indeed,
he was the first to identify its imitation of the
brown linnet.

Having found mimicry in the thrush, I listened
for it in the songs of other birds. In some, such
as those of the hedge- accentor, tree -pipit, brown
wren, chaffinch, and greenfinch, no trace of it was
found, though the birds sang well ; but in others,
and especially in those of the starling, sedge-
warbler, redstart, blackbird, skylark, and robin,

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

more or less imitation was apparent About two
years later I began to make extensive records of
the imitations sung by wild birds, my method being
to identify the singer, and then to write down the
date and place of singing, the state of the weather,
number of times of singing per minute, and the
particular sounds which appeared to be reproduced.
Some of the sounds imitated were rendered with
wonderful fidelity by the better mimics, such as the
sedge - warbler, starling, and thrush ; other birds,
with full-toned voices, as the robin, blackbird, and
nightingale, appeared to be able to repeat exactly
the musical intervals sung by other birds, but to
be unable to render the sounds (especially in the
case of harsh sounds) with accurate intonation.
Again, some of the singers appeared to whistle
their own songs, and then to supplement these
with the addition of sounds borrowed from the
cries of other birds.

The blackbird and missel-thrush exemplify this
method. But the blackcap, whose voice is as full-
toned as that of either of these two, adopted an
opposite mode, and commenced its songs with soft
imitations of other birds, to conclude them with its
own full whistles. I attempted to draw no deduc-
tions from my first observations, knowing that

INTRODUCTION

general statements cannot justly be founded on
the behaviour of a {^w individuals.

During a period of eighteen months I went on
with my work of recording, but at considerable
personal inconvenience. My profession demanding
all the middle hours of week-days, there were com-
paratively {^\Y opportunities for making notes at
that time ; but on nearly every fine morning, the
whole year through, I was early abroad in the
woods and fields, armed with telescope and note-
book ; and when the evenings were long enough,
the same course was pursued. Occasionally, my
notes were all entered in a ledger, as though to
the account of the several birds observed. In the
spring of 1889 I began to condense the results of
this work, and found myself in the possession of
records of the songs of a large number of our
commoner birds, heard in Gloucestershire and also
in or near Bath, Weston-super-Mare, Clifton, and
Bournemouth. I had notes on the songs of some
seventy thrushes, nearly sixty robins, many star-
lings, skylarks, finches, and other singers. A care-
ful comparison of the records revealed that imitative
birds had reproduced the cries of other birds especi-
ally frequent in their haunts. The skylark had
been partial to field-birds ; the robin to those of

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

the thicket ; the starling to those of the field as
well as to those of the town. On further tabulation
the notes betrayed indications that summer visitors
to this country are imitated more often in spring
and summer than in autumn and winter, and this
would seem reasonable to any one sufficiently familiar
with song-birds to understand that many of them
are creatures of intelligence, endowed with accurate
memories and considerable powers of observation
and mimicry. The various aspects of imitation,
and instances of its occurrence, are discussed in the
chapter on " The Influence of Imitation," towards
the end of this book. In pursuing my studies of
the notes of birds, I observed a good deal of bird-
life, and soon found that certain cries were employed
by birds as call-notes, and others for the purpose
of expressing alarm — facts which have long been
familiar to ornithologists. I also noticed that birds
of a species would generally behave in much the
same manner on the same occasions, and that par-
ticular cries were sometimes employed to express
certain degrees of emotion, some call -notes being
evidently of a more urgent meaning than others,
and some alarm -cries being similarly more im-
portant. There were other curious features in
these call-notes and " alarms," which are respectively

INTRODUCTION

Stated in Chapter IL, on " Alarm -notes," and
Chapter IV., on " Call-notes."

Between these chapters will be found one treat-
ing of the influence of combat. This feature is
difficult to discuss with anything like precision :
incidents have been adduced tending to show that
the pugnacious instinct has some influence on the
use of the voice.

I soon found that young birds acquire first the
call - cries and alarm - notes of their respective
species ; that in each species these notes are much
less liable to vary than are the songs ; and that in
different species physically allied, they are more
alike than are the songs of those species. Another
most interesting feature, and one which I commend
to the attention of ornithologists everywhere, was
the prominent occurrence of a particular cry in one
species ; its occurrence in a less marked form in
some one or two allied birds, in which another cry
might be the most pronounced ; and the utterance
of this second cry by some other allied birds, which
had not the first-mentioned note. I could trace
this to some extent in the thrushes, but more especi-
ally in the finches. These facts will be appreciated by
naturalists, as bearing on the question of a common
ancestry of species. For purposes of suggestion I

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

have traced family resemblances of this nature in
species physically allied, and in others not thus
related. I also read of certain birds which inherit
their songs, and I was acquainted with several
which inherit their alarm-cries and call-notes. The
subject to which these matters relate, the influence
of heredity, is discussed at length in chapter vii.
There can be no doubt that heredity is as certain
in perpetuating the cries of some species as is
imitation in determining the whole character of
the songs of others ; the extent to which these
influences prevail in the several orders of birds has
yet to be traced. Variation, towards which feature
the males of so many species tend, seems to be the
parent of imitation ; it is considered in a separate
chapter.

"The Music of Bird -song" is the concluding
theme. It has to some extent been discussed in
the chapter on Imitation ; but in the Appendix will
be found a transcript of many strains which I
heard sung by the better singers.

The reader will observe that I have not relied
wholly upon my own observations, but have quoted
those of numerous well-known authorities, of good
report in the scientific world. I read no book at
all on the subject until 1889, when I had com-

INTRODUCTION

menced my comparisons between the various records.
Since that time very many works have been perused,
but only in a few have any acceptable records been
found. Even Mr. Simeon Pease Cheney's work,
full of musical notation, hardly touches upon
imitation, and has no observations on the influence
of heredity. There are poetical writers who de-
scribe such incidents as the lark soaring in the sky,
pouring out his soul in music for the little brown
mate trustfully listening in her nest ; but they never
remark that the lark utters a chattered song when
he fights. There are many ornithologists who name
certain birds as imitative ; but when their descrip-
tions are examined, the reader can only infer that
the mimics were caged specimens. I have nothing
to say about caged birds, except in quotation, or in
relation to experiments with young birds, or where
such arbitrary notes as those of the collared turtle-
dove, young pheasant, and young partridge are
concerned. In making my investigations, various
ideas on the causes of certain features of the exer-
cising of the voice in birds occurred to me. These
are set out in chapter vi., on " Noticeable Incidents
connected with Bird -song." One of the most
marked of these features was the construction of
certain songs by the rapid repetition of call-notes.

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

This subject seems to me sufficiently important to
warrant its elucidation in a separate chapter (v.), on
" The Simplest Songs."

The scheme of this work is as follows : — A
hypothesis on the first occurrence of voice in any
animal is stated, and the influence of combat in
perpetuating it is then mentioned. The inherited
distress-cries of young animals (probably produced
long after the occurrence of the voice in adults),
and the retention of these cries for the purposes of
call-notes, lead to the consideration of the simplest
songs, which are mere repetitions of the call-notes,
and to those in which variations occur, and which
probably are affected by the influence of imitation.
The purposes of imitation are then discussed. The
scientific value of the notes of birds, as bearing
upon the ancestry of species, is considered at
length.

By " bird-song " I mean the whole range of the
voice in birds. Songs I have defined as vocal
utterances, not being alarm-cries or call-notes.^

The word " phrase " (as I have employed it in
this work) does not mean a strain in music, but a
period of song ; so that, if a bird sang a few notes
at one time, then paused and sang them again, and

1 Zoologist, July 1890.

INTRODUCTION

SO on, each repetition would be a " phrase." Thus
it is possible that many phrases could be the same
song exactly, repeated at intervals, or the song might
be varied, but it would be a separate phrase at each
time of utterance. It is important that this defini-
tion of the phrase should be remembered.

A " strain," on the other hand, means a succession
of sounds uttered in a definite order, and which may
be repeated, perhaps several times, in one phrase, as
commonly occurs in the very long phrases of the
skylark.

CHAPTER I

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE

The great diversity of the voice in animals, and the
extent to which it is inflected by individuals, suggest
that it is particularly liable to be influenced by the
vicissitudes of the struggle for existence, and to
be necessarily modulated in accordance with the
requirements of each animal or species by which
it is employed.

This modulation is very apparent. We hear
from every side the notes of various animals, as
cries for succour, songs apparently of love, and
notes equally suggestive of triumph or of fear —
all of them exactly suited to the purposes for
which they are uttered. But it does not follow
that these sounds have always been employed for
the same purposes, nor that they have always
been uttered in the present modes ; for we observe
among birds, at least, prevalent changes not only

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE 13

of musical pitch, but of other vocal characters, in
the young as well as in the adults. Nor must we
hastily assume that the voice itself has always been
coeval with even the higher forms of animal life
upon the earth. On the contrary, there are grounds
for believing that in the epoch when the highest
forms were the amphibians and reptiles, the voice,
properly so-called, had not yet been heard in the
world.

Charles Darwin was of the opinion that the
first vocal sounds were involuntarily produced. In
his work. The Expression of the Emotions^ pp. 83
and 84, is the following observation : " When the
sensorium is strongly excited, the muscles of the
body are generally thrown into violent action, and,
as a consequence, loud sounds are uttered, however
silent the animal may generally be, and although
the sound may be of no use. Hares and rabbits,
for instance, never, I believe, use their vocal organs
except in the extremity of suffering ; as when a
hare is killed by a sportsman, or when a young
rabbit is caught by a stoat. Cattle and horses
suffer great pain in silence, but when this is excess-
ive, and especially when associated with terror,
they utter fearful sounds. Involuntary and pur-
poseless contractions of the muscles of the chest

14 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

and glottis, excited in the above manner, may
have first given rise to the emission of vocal
sounds."

The most violent contractions of the muscles of
the chest and glottis v/ould certainly have occurred
during combat, and it is therefore fair to assume
that the voice was first produced during the fights
of animals, although possibly its earliest tones were
little more than coughs or grunts, or a hoarse
murmur due to panting. Darwin observed {ibid.),
" The principle also of association, which is so
widely extended in its power, has likewise played
its part. Hence it follows that the voice, from
having been habitually employed as a serviceable
aid under certain conditions, inducing pleasure, pain,
rage, etc., has commonly been used whenever the
same sensations or emotions are excited under
quite different conditions or in a lesser degree."

We may be certain that the perception of a
threatened attack is only a mental anticipation of
the combat which experience, or inherited instinct,
suggests as a probable consequence of the approach
of an enemy. It is easy to imagine that, among
animals which survived by the agency of their speed,
the excitement due to the approach of an enemy
would cause an involuntarily increased rapidity in

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE 15

the movements of the lungs ; and if the animals
were of large size, a kind of snorting, like that
of a horse, might thereby be produced ; or perhaps
the initial movement of certain limbs, like the
twitching of the wings of a terrified falcon, would
be occasioned. The development of clear cries
from snorts or grunts must be regarded as a pro-
cess of very slow progress. But we must remember
that there are several widely distinct races of
animals whose only attempt at vocal utterance is
the employment of a yet simpler mode of expres-
sion— a mere puff or hiss caused by the toneless
expulsion of air from the lungs ; and be it observed
that in these instances, as well as in those of its
occurrence in animals possessing voices, the sound is
invariably due to anger or to fear. The common
tortoise, so often kept as a pet in English gardens,
when suddenly alarmed withdraws its head and
limbs rapidly within its shell, and at the same
time a kind of short hiss is heard, especially if
the animal has been frightened by being grasped
in the hand. In serpents, a hiss is the common
expression of anger. Among birds, the same feel-
ing is sometimes expressed in a similar tone, but it
is rarely employed except by birds sitting on their
nests. In this position, the female nuthatch, the

1 6 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

wryneck, and the blue titmouse, utter a hiss not
unlike that of a snake — a circumstance well known
to egg- collectors. The brooding domestic duck
hisses at the hand which attempts to remove her
eggs ; and, under the same conditions, the common
domestic hen makes a violent puffing, less harsh
in tone, but otherwise greatly similar to the hissing
of the duck.-^ The great owl {Bubo maximus\ when
angry, utters a sharp, loud hiss, not unlike the
sound produced by the common brown owl of
England when irritated. I have only observed
one great owl, a bird two years old, in very com-
fortable quarters near Stroud. The young hoopoes,
when disturbed on the nest, " crowd forward and
utter a hissing noise " (Harting, Stmimer Migrants, p.
255). The gander, too, hisses as a means of menace
to any one threatening his goslings (Jesse, Gleanings,
p. 48). The mute swan hisses loudly at intruders
when his mate is on the nest. The nestling young
of the common pigeon and those of the turtle-dove
{C. tu7'tur) make a blowing or puffing sound as a
menace. The common rosy cockatoo employs a
short, sharp puff for the expression of anger ; and I
heard a precisely similar sound uttered by two fresh-

^ A few years ago, in May, I saw at the Zoological Gardens in
Regent's Park, London, a ruddy shelduck chasing a gull around his
pond. The shelduck was hissing violently.

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE 17

caught and hooded peregrine falcons in the posses-
sion of Major C. H. Fisher.

The angry hissing or puffing of birds has not
been recorded by observers ; but in the above Hst
are birds of widely distinct genera, induced by
inherited tendencies to utter sounds which, in a
general sense, may be considered as restricted to
the reptile kingdom. This seems the more import-
ant when we remember how closely the bird is
physically related to the reptile.

Whatever may have been the character of the
first vocal efforts, it is interesting to observe that at
the present time there are creatures of common
occurrence in which the voice is of an entirely
accidental origin. The appearance of these animals
does not suggest a tendency towards song, for they
are none other than the three commoner forms of
newts found in Britain, namely, the triton, the
smooth newt, and the palmate newt — creatures
allied to the salamanders, frogs, and other amphi-
bians. They commence life as tadpoles, and after-
wards come ashore to spend a period of some four
years in developing towards maturity. At the end
of this period they resume an aquatic existence for
the purpose of continuing their species. They

breathe in the manner of frogs, forcing air into their

2

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

lungs by an action akin to swallowing, and retain-
ing it there by means of the closing of the glottis.
After spending some months in the water, they
emerge once more, to stay on land for the re-
mainder of the year. But during all this time they
never utter any sound which can be considered as
vocal, though, in the act of breathing, their jaws
sometimes close with a sort of snap. Persons who
have kept newts in aquaria are generally aware
that, when a newt is held by the tail it wriggles
violently, and often, when so struggling, utters a
brief but distinct croaking sound. The noise is, no
doubt, caused by the body of the creature striking
against the fingers, by which action the lungs are
compressed, and consequently the contained air is
forced through the tightened glottis, and thus pro-
duces a croak. Perhaps the gigantic ancestors of
our newts did not struggle quite so actively, but
any sounds, proportionately louder, thus produced
in their contests, may have been of service by
occasioning the release of amphibians from the grip
of predacious enemies to whom such outbursts were
unfamiliar. When a newt is seized towards the
hind quarters by a snake the croak is heard ; but
I cannot say that I have ever known it to be of
any avail against such an attack, and I have

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE 19

witnessed the incident some hundreds of times.
Young frogs {R. teniporarid) sometimes scream
when seized by a snake ; and in this case an
inherited cry is produced in its full tone by an
animal which has never before made use of any
vocal power it may possess.

Among the earlier forms of life the voice was
probably of accidental rather than voluntary origin.
In the amphibians it may have been originated in
the same manner as it is now first used by the
newts, and have survived in consequence of an
advantage it conferred in battle. Among mammals
and birds it may have been inherited from an earlier
source ; or in the former it may have been elabor-
ated from snorts and grunts, and in the latter the
violent actions and rapid breathing incidental to
combats in the air may have initiated a power which
was afterwards adopted as a means of expressing a
threat. Birds of several genera make an audible
snapping noise with their bills when they fight ; but
the greenfinch, chaffinch, and house-sparrow, under
the same conditions, sometimes produce a hoarse
kind of note which appears to be due partly to the
very rapid striking together of the mandibles, and
partly to some guttural sound. This reference to
the house-sparrow must be read in connection with

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

subsequent remarks upon the so-called noisy combats
of this bird, which are not fights at all, but affairs
of love. When sparrows really fight they make
but little noise, and then the sound just described
can be distinctly heard by an observer who is fairly
close to the combatants.

It is to be regretted that the sounds made by
fighting birds have been, like those uttered by birds
disturbed on the nest, so little investigated or re-
corded by ornithologists. If Darwin's theory, that
the voice was first occasioned by the involuntary
contraction of muscles, consequent upon excitement
of the sensorium, is sound, it is equally true that
the greatest excitement of the sensorium is occa-
sioned by the attack or the mere presence of an
enemy (actual or supposed) ; for several animals,
such as cats, rabbits, and rats, will remain quiet when
in a trap, although enduring great physical suffering,
but, if approached by a person, they begin to make
an outcry. The same behaviour is noticeable in
many birds ; and in the reptile kingdom we often
observe the only attempts at vocal utterance to
be intended as expressions of intense anger or
fear.

We may consider the voice to have been evolved
from a toneless puffing, indicative of anger, or from

THE ORIGIN OF THE VOICE 21

snorts or grunts accidentally caused ; and if, on the
other hand, we accept Darwin's view, we can, not
the less reasonably on that account, hold to the
opinion that the voice was first occasioned by the
agency of combat.

CHAPTER II

ALARM-NOTES

If any particular kind of vocal utterance had been
of aid in combat, it would, in a comparatively short
period, have become general in the species by which
it was employed.

A combat-cry might well be uttered before the
commencement of a fight, and it would then be
virtually a defiance, and, in the neighbourhood of
assembled animals, it might answer the purposes of
an alarm-note. We may be sure that such a cry
would have been acted upon, since, among warm-
blooded animals, alarm-cries are of almost universal
comprehension. Birds in a thicket become sus-
picious when some distant individual of even another
genus utters an alarm. I remember a marked in-
stance of this habit, in which several birds of distinct
genera — tits, nuthatches, goldcrests, and tree-creepers
— gathered around a coaltit which, alarmed at the

A LARM-NO TES 23

sudden appearance of a little rough terrier, was
uttering loud simple screams ; the others hurried to
the spot and joined in a chorus of alarms.

When a bird is greatly excited by fear, either for
its own safety or on account of its young, and
generally when other birds are near, it usually
utters its common alarm-cry many times in succes-
sion. In some species certain alarm-cries consist of
a rapid repetition of a single note (the alarms of the
mistle- thrush and magpie are examples), and in
other birds they are single cries repeated at
intervals, as in the nightingale, chiffchaff, chaffinch,
and crow. But sometimes a bird with a single
alarm-note will repeat this cry so many times in
rapid succession that a kind of exclamation is pro-
duced of the same character as the set or arbitrary
alarms of the mistle-thrush and magpie.

Thus, I have heard a nightjar utter its sharp,
clicking alarm at first slowly, then more and more
rapidly, until the notes became blended into one
rattling cry. I have twice heard a magpie similarly
utter short caJis^ and rapidly increase their number,
slightly changing their tone, until the common
shushushushu alarm-cry was rendered in its accus-
tomed style. On several occasions I have also
heard a male house - sparrow begin his continuous

24 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

shaking alarm by uttering his common call or note
of warning and occasional song-note tell ; and
here also the same increased rapidity of utterance
seemed to have the same result.^ On many occa-
sions I have heard a male blackcap, alarmed for the
safety of his young, repeat the ordinary alarm tack
(well named by Yarrell) so rapidly that a continuous
shaking cry, like the shaking alarms of the house-
sparrow and great tit, was produced. I have twice
heard long-tailed tits reiterate their rattling alarm in
the manner in which the call-note tuck of the brown
wren (a cry most often heard in autumn) is very
frequently prolonged, so that the utterance was
changed like that of the above-mentioned blackcaps.
On one occasion the tits were frightened by a pair
of sparrow-hawks flying low above them, and on the
other they were alarmed by the sudden appearance
of a strange dog. It is a matter of easy observa-
tion that the rattling alarm of the blackbird is
constructed of repetitions of one cry, which is some-
times uttered slowly at intervals of several seconds ;
but this is only when the bird is suspicious of some
concealed danger, and as the peril increases the
notes become more frequent, more acute, and con-
siderably higher in pitch. This incident affords a
^ The female house-sparrow has both of these cries.

ALARM- NOTES

common illustration of the general rule that when a
vocal sound is employed for the expression of an
emotion, and the emotion becomes intensified, the
note is uttered more frequently, and at a higher pitch.
Of course the blackbird is often alarmed suddenly,
and then he utters his full alarm at once ; but when
his young are threatened, as it seems to him, by
the presence of another animal, the construction of
the full alarm-cr\- is sometimes beautifully demon-
strated. If the rapid alarms here mentioned have
been originally produced by mere repetition, is it not
probable that alarms which invariably consist of a
note repeated many times, such as those of the
mistle-thrush and the magpie, were evolved in a
similar manner?

Danger-cries were probably often uttered near
the nests of many species, as they now are thus
employed by the lapwing, blackbird, house-sparrow,
chaffinch, willow-warbler, and many others of the
same genera : and they would also have been
uttered near the fledged young when these were
threatened ; hence the young would have been
familiar with these cries, and in due course would
have reproduced and perpetuated them. In this
way each race would probably have developed its
own danger-cr)- ; for we may be sure :h:i: there was

26 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

variation, if only in degrees of vehemence, and con-
sequently in length or rapidity of repetition, in these
cries. The blackbird affords an example of such an
occurrence. Its alarm is very like the alarms of its
allies the ring-ouzel, mistle-thrush, and fieldfare, but
is uttered more frequently, more rapidly, and with
greater variety of pitch than any alarms of those
species ; and sometimes, especially towards evening
in February and March, it appears to be employed
for the mere purpose of making a noise and attract-
ing attention. The influence of heredity in per-
petuating alarm-cries will be discussed in later pages.
The relation of particular alarm-cries of birds to
the presence of certain enemies is a deeply interest-
ing subject, which has not received much attention
from ornithologists. Many birds, when approached
by enemies, express vocally, as well as in other ways,
various degrees of fear, which indicate a considerable
amount of discrimination. The expression of fear
may have been inherited, as it is in the domestic
cock, who yet retains the prominent habit of utter-
ing a yell of alarm when any large bird unex-
pectedly flies over him, a habit exhibited by his
remote ancestor [Gallus bankivd) in India.-^ Mr.

^ It is worthy of remark that often, when first the young cockerel
attempts to crow, he utters a simple yell, closely similar to the alarm-
yell of the adult bird.

ALARM-NOTES 27

W. H. Hudson has recorded the discrimination of
the birds in the La Plata region, where the various
hawks and falcons " have just as much respect
paid to them as their strength and daring entitle
them to, and no more" (Naturalist in La Plata,

p. 83).

Various incidents have been recorded which seem
to suggest the relation of cries to the presence of
particular enemies. In Traite de la Faiiconnerie
(by Prof Schlegel), p. 44, is the following: "The
signs of alarm which the shrike (Z. excubitor) gives
vary infinitely, not only according to the species of
bird of prey which appears, but also according to
the mode by which it approaches — whether slow or
quickly, gliding over the ground, or soaring aloft,
and so on."

The writer of this observation refers to a caged
shrike kept to announce the arrival of a hawk in the
vicinity of the trapper. My own experience has
been sufficient to enable me to generally gather
from the alarm-cries of birds a fairly correct impres-
sion of the nature of the enemies they announce.
I know well that when house-sparrows utter loudly
the most vehement alarm of the species — a sound
resembling that of tourr — the birds are greatly
afraid of some other bird, and that probably a hawk

28 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

is in sight But I have known them utter the same
sound when a jackdaw attacked their young. I
have often discovered the presence of a hawk from
hearing the starlings utter sounds which I will term
their " hawk-alarm," namely, cries sounding like cack-
cack. The starling has other notes also employed to
express alarm ; but this cry is certainly of general
and almost exclusive use when a hawk suddenly
appears. But I cannot say that it announces any
particular species of hawk, for I have heard it em-
ployed by starlings which were approached by a
tame kestrel, and by others at which a tame pere-
grine falcon swooped ; and the wild sparrow-hawk is
always announced by this exclamation.

Blackbirds utter a loud metallic chirp when their
nests or young are approached by a cat, or when
they find an owl. A friend informed me that he
observed in his garden a number of blackbirds utter-
ing this cry very noisily near a cucumber-frame, in
which a female blackbird had accidentally become
enclosed. The captive was liberated, and the outcry
immediately ceased. I trained a little Dandie terrier
to recognise the cries which blackbirds in the garden
uttered when a cat was near their nest. This was a
frequent occurrence ; and as soon as the birds began
to rate their enemy, the dog would run into the

ALARM-NOTES 29

bushes and compel it to beat a hasty retreat. The
birds took no notice of the dog.

The swallow doubles its common call -note clit
into clit-it when a hawk approaches. But I have
heard it utter precisely the same cry when its young
were attacked by a crow. I have noticed this
behaviour in swallows at Vancouver, B.C., as well as
in those of England. The common domestic pigeon
announces the arrival of a hawk or a hawk-like bird
by a peculiar puff or grunt, something like the sound
of the word oof ; but it employs the same sound
when disturbed by a man at night. The common
cock, when alarmed by a bird flying over him, utters
a loud yell, as has been noticed ; but, if approached
by a bird or other animal upon the ground, he
almost invariably utters a cackle of surprise.

It appears, then, that certain birds utter particular
cries to express great fear, whether the fear be
caused by the actual presence of a much -dreaded
enemy, or by an erroneous impression received from
the similar movements of some other creature. But
we are not at present in a position to assert that
any particular enemy is announced by any particular
cry. There is, however, no occasion to doubt that
parent birds, partly by means of cries as well as by
deportment, educate their young in a knowledge of

30 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

their rapacious enemies, although in certain species
this knowledge is to some extent inherited, as it is
in the common fowl. In relation to this interesting
matter the following remarks by Mr. Hudson are in
point : — " Another proof that the nestling has ab-
solutely no instinctive knowledge of particular
enemies, but is taught to fear them by the parents,
is to be found in the striking contrast between the
habits of parasitical and genuine young in the nest
and after they have left it, while still unable to find
their own food. I have had no opportunities of
observing the habits of the young cuckoo in
England with regard to this point, and do not know
whether other observers have paid any attention to
the matter or not, but I am very familiar with the
manners of the parasitical starling or cow - bird of
South America. The warning cries of the foster-
parent have no effect on the young cow-bird at any
time. Until they are able to fly, they will readily
devour worms from the hand of a man, even when
the old birds are hovering close by and screaming
their danger-notes, and while their own young, if the
parasite has allowed any to survive in the nest, are
crouching down in the greatest fear. After the
cow-bird has left the nest it is still stupidly tame ;
and more than once I have seen one carried off from

ALARM-NOTES 31

its elevated perch by the milvago-hawk, when, if it
had understood the warning cry of the foster-parent,
it would have dropped down into the bush or grass
and escaped ; but, as soon as the young cow-birds
are able to shift for themselves and begin to
associate with their own kind, their habits change,
and they become suspicious and wild like other
birds " {pp. cit. p. 89).

It would seem that the alarm-cries of birds were
at an early period developed so as to induce silence
in the objects to which they were addressed. Mr.
Hudson, who has carefully considered this subject,
says : " When very young, and before their educa-
tion has well begun, if quietly approached or
touched, they open their bills and take food as
readily from a man as from a parent bird ; but if,
while being thus fed, the parent returns and emits
the warning-note, they instantly cease their hunger-
cries, close their gaping mouths, and crouch down
frightened in the nest. This fear caused by the,
parent bird's warning-note begins to manifest itself
even before the young are hatched ; and my
observations on this point refer to several species in
three widely -separated orders. When the little
prisoner is hammering at its shell and uttering its
feeble peep, as if begging to be let out, if the

32 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

warning - note is uttered, even at a considerable
distance, the strokes and complaining instantly
cease, and the chick will then remain quiescent for
a long time, or until the parent, by a changed note,
conveys to it an intimation that the danger is over "
{Naturalist in La Plata^ p. 89).

I have during many years observed with some
amusement the warnings by which, at daybreak, old
house-sparrows silence their impatient young. The
sparrows have been accustomed to sleep, with their
broods, among creepers affording excellent shelter
immediately beneath the open window of my bed-
room. At morning twilight the young birds would
begin to cheep, and the old ones had some difficulty
in keeping them quiet. This they effected by utter-
ing various (and certainly, as they seemed to me,
rather suggestive) inflections of the favourite note
of warning and occasional song - note, tell. At
intervals of a minute or two the young would
recommence their importunate cries, and an old bird
would at once impose silence by a sharp note,
followed by various sotto voce admonitions.

CHAPTER III

THE INFLUENCE OF COMBAT

The probability that combats between animals
first occasioned the utterance of vocal sounds has
been suggested in Chapter I. of this book. The
purport of the present chapter is to discuss the
further influence of combat in developing and modi-
fying the voice. Just as an anticipation of danger
may produce an alarm-cry, so the irritating presence
of a rival, or an intruder upon a favourite resort,
might have induced the use of a cry as a defiance.

Darwin observed : " It is certain that there is an
intense degree of rivalry between the males (of birds)
in their singing. Bird-fanciers match their birds to
see which will sing longest ; and I was told by Mr.
Yarrell that a first-rate bird will sometimes sing till
he drops down almost dead, or, according to Bech-
stein, quite dead, from rupturing a vessel in the
lungs {Naticrgeschichte der Stiibenvogel, 1 840, p. 252).

3

34 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

That the habit of singing is sometimes quite inde-
pendent of love is clear, for a sterile hybrid canary-
bird has been described as singing whilst viewing
itself in a mirror, and as then dashing at its own
image ; it likewise attacked with fury a female canary
when put into the same cage. The jealousy excited
by the act of singing is constantly taken advantage of
by bird-catchers : a male, in good song, is hidden
and protected, whilst a stuffed bird surrounded by
limed twigs is exposed to view. In this manner, as
Mr. Weir informs me, a man has in the course of a
single day caught fifty, and in one instance seventy,
male chaffinches. That male birds should sing from
emulation as well as for charming the female is not
at all incompatible ; and it might have been ex-
pected that these two habits would have concurred,
like those of display and pugnacity. Some authors,
however, argue that the song of the male cannot
serve to charm the female, because the females of
some few species, such as the canary, robin, lark,
and bullfinch, especially in a state of widowhood, as
Bechstein remarks, pour forth melodious strains."

It may be presumed that these latter individuals
were caged birds, having abundant leisure and plenty
of food, incidents the effects of which I shall venture
to discuss in subsequent pages. Darwin continues :

THE INFLUENCE OF COMBAT 35

" In some of these cases the habit of singing may be
in part attributed to the female having been highly
fed and confined, for this seems to disturb all the
usual functions connected with the reproduction of the
species. ... It has been also argued that the song
of the male cannot serve as a charm, because the
males of certain species, for instance of the robin,
sing during autumn. But nothing is more common
than for animals to take pleasure in practising what-
ever instinct they follow at other times for some real
good" (^Descent of Man, p. 369). Singing affords
almost the only means of occupying the ample
leisure of a captive bird.

Amongst polygamous species the selection of
mates is largely dependent upon victory in combat ;
and this may account not only for the defiant
nature of the cries of male Gallinaceous birds, but
also for their lack of varied song. The males
capture rather than woo their mates : hence sweet-
ness of voice is of far less advantage than strength
and fury in their courtship.

It is clear that a widely -prevalent snapping
noise made with the bill has been developed among
birds as a menace ; and it corresponds to the
display of teeth by an angry dog, and the waving
of the horns and lowering of the head of an

36 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

enraged bull. I have not detected any similar
snapping of the bill during song, unless, indeed, a
certain note of the greenfinch can be considered to
be, as its tone indicates, modified by a rattling of
the mandibles during its utterance. The full song
of the male greenfinch may be rendered as follows :
Did it it ititit, tell tell tell, zshzveeoo, the zsh in the
last word being pronounced like the letter " s " in
" treasure " and " pleasure." The cry did it it it
is the common call of both sexes at maturity.
About February the male generally adds to this the
cry tell tell . . . ; and in March is added the zshweeoo,
which is never uttered before did it or tell in the
phrase, but often follows them, and is sometimes
uttered alone. This note is never uttered when
the male is " playing " to the female, nor when he is
feeding her off the nest, nor yet during flight ; but it
seems to be accompanied by a rattle of the bill
closely like that which is produced during combat
by this species, and by the female house-sparrow
when she threatens the male who is courting her.
For these reasons I consider this note to be a
defiance song-note. A very similar, but shorter and
much coarser, note is uttered by the goldfinch when
fighting ; and the lesser redpoll and (I believe) the
siskin furnish similar examples.

THE INFLUENCE OF COMBAT z7

There is, however, much better evidence that
defiance influences the vocal utterances of certain
birds.

The cock does not crow when calling a hen
towards him, but invariably crows when he has de-
feated an adversary, and generally before combat.
The males of the American pinnated grouse {Tetrao
cupidd) utter a " cackling, screaming, and discordant
cry when fighting at their scratching places, where
they meet at break of day" (Wilson, Auier. Ornith.,
vol. ii. p. 399). The kingbird {Tyrmzmis Carolinensis)
twitters when attacking the eagle (Wilson, op. cit.
vol. i. p. 2 1 8). Of the snow-bunting, Saxby stated,
" They chirp as they fly, and the sudden jarring
sound is heard which is uttered by the bird when
suddenly directing its course towards a neighbour.
That the note in question is sometimes one of
anger I have repeatedly observed, when two of
the birds have been quarrelling over their food "
{Birds of Shetland^ P- 9 0- I have often observed that
in early spring yellow buntings and larks utter a
kind of chattering song when they contest among
themselves the possession of favourite spots. These
birds are then appropriating situations for nesting,
and are seeking mates. Twice I have heard
chaffinches cry pifik pink, and that cry only

38 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

during combat. The house -sparrow is generally
silent when fighting. The so-called noisy combats
of this species are simply assemblies of males
around a female, to whom they are showing-off
and chirping, and from whom they often receive
violent pecks and pinches which sometimes make
some of them scream. When males fight, one may
hurt the other and cause him to cry out. This one
then exclaims in precisely the same tone as that
employed when a sparrow is carried away by a
hawk ; but until so injured by an opponent he is
silent. The females sometimes severely pinch
males which play to them too demonstratively : I
have twice seen a male hanging suspended for
certainly two seconds by the bill of a female.

The crested lark {Alauda cristatus), like the sky-
lark, " has the peculiarity that when it fights it con-
tinues to sing " (Bechstein's Nat, Hist, of Cage Birds,
p. 179). I have heard the full song of the tree-pipit
repeated by this bird when fighting furiously. During
spring and summer male thrushes sing when fighting,
and during the whole year, excepting July and
August, male robins have the same habit ; in both
species the song becomes raised in pitch, often to an
obscure squeak, before the combat commences. Jesse
observed this habit in the robin {Gleanings y 2nd

THE INFLUENCE OF COMBAT 39

series, 1834, p. 252), and he recorded that a
blackbird, after beating a cat away from its young,
celebrated the victory with a song {torn, cit, p.
248). The hedge-accentor twitters when fighting.
I have often observed chiffchaffs and willow-wrens,
and occasionally goldcrests, singing while fighting.
In spring brown wrens challenge each other in
song. In The Zoologist for 1869 (p. 1645) is an
account of brown wrens which were fighting, and
after being separated three times, " sounded notes of
battle and began to fight again." I have twice
similarly separated fighting wrens, and on each occa-
sion the victor immediately began to sing, and in
his song omitted to utter the coarse call -note,
which is generally included.

Darwin says, " Rival males try to excel and
challenge each other by their voices, and this leads
to daily contests. . . . Thus the use of the voice
will have become associated with the emotion of
anger" {Expression of the Emotions^ p. 85). It
is possible that rivalry may sometimes induce
definite defiance, as in autumn it appears to do in
robins, which, after singing near each other, approach
and fight. Some observers seem to have been of
this opinion, for Darwin states, " Many naturalists
believe that the singing of birds is almost ex-

40 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

clusively the effect of rivalry and emulation, and not
for the sake of charming their mates " {Desceiit of
Man, p. 369). ''Males of song-birds and of many
others do not in general search for the female ; but, on
the contrary, their business in the spring is to perch
on some conspicuous spot, breathing out their full
and amorous notes, which by instinct the female
knows, and repairs to the spot, to choose her mate
(Montague, Orn, Diet., ed. 1833, p. 475). Mr.
Jenner H. Weir informs me that this is certainly
the case with the nightingale " {Descent of Man, p.
368). This seems to be borne out by a later
observation. " Bechstein, who kept birds during his
whole life, asserts ' that the female canary always
chooses the best singer, and that in a state of nature
the female finch selects that male out of a hundred
whose notes please her most' {NaturgeschicJite der
Stubenvogel, 1840)." It would seem that Bechstein,
in making this assertion, was assuming a familiarity
with the feelings of wild birds very difficult to
acquire ; for how can an observer be sure that
such a preference is not due to colour or move-
ment, instead of to song ? But probably before there
was a call-song there were heard varieties of call-
notes ; and this subject will be discussed in the
next chapter.

CHAPTER IV

THE CALL-NOTE

It may fairly be said that any bird-cry which induces
a bird to approach another is a "call-note," whether
it be a danger-signal, a combat -cry, or an alarm.
But naturalists have distinguished in nearly every
kind, and certainly in all British kinds of extended
song, specific notes which they have observed
to be used only for the purpose of attracting birds ;
and these notes they have termed " call-notes." It
is true that different writers have sometimes mistaken
the nature of such cries, and have not only given
conflicting descriptions of call-notes, but have also
considered some battle-cries to be of this character.
The two following instances are examples : — The
call -note of the marsh titmouse {Parus palustris)
has been variously described, but no description
is better than that of the late Mr. Sterland. In
his Birds of Sherwood Forest, p. '^6, he says of

42 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

this Species : " Their cry resembles the words chica^
chica, chica, repeated four or five times in succes-
sion, and ending with a shorter syllable, chike!' In
Gloucestershire the principal spring call -note is a
rapidly downward-slurred whistle, sometimes followed
by the quick repetition of a harsh cry, the whole
sounding something like this (the actual pitch is
wholly immaterial) :

8ve.

^ p-ff*— *— * 1^ F * g^ ^ J— J-

^ > I? P

CheeQ sa sa sa Cheeu Cheeu Cheeu sa sa sa sa.

This seems to me the only characteristic call-note of
the marsh titmouse. The well-known cry fink or
pink of the chaffinch has often been termed the
call -note of the bird, and even Yarrell has made
this mistake. My experience convinces me that
the cry is not a call -note. The chaffinch has several
notes which are of this character : one is a soft cry
almost exactly like the ordinary chissick of the
house -sparrow, and is uttered by both sexes at
the breeding season ; this also is the call-note by
which the young attract their parents. Another
cry which I have often heard uttered by male
chaffinches before the breeding season is a loud
short whistle very rapidly slurred upwards, in the

THE CALL-NOTE 43

interval of about a fifth or sixth. It may be pro-
nounced twit, and written thus :

In autumn yet another cry is employed, a very short
and soft chirp or whistle, descending in the interval
of a whole tone. The cry pink^ which is quite
distinct from the other notes, is a battle-cry and
alarm. I have twice in winter heard it used by
fighting chaffinches, and on several other occasions
it has been accompanied by a menace. On one
occasion (in March) I saw two male chaffinches
flying around a female. The leading male, evidently
trying to avoid the attack of his pursuer, uttered the
soft call-note (like chissick\ seemingly as a call to
the female. The pursuing bird uttered pink pink
very loudly. This incident lasted for about one
minute. I have also heard the latter cry uttered by
caged chaffinches when much alarmed. Mr. Herbert
C. Playne informs me that this cry is frequently
employed when chaffinches are mobbing an owl ; I
have heard it employed by them towards my tame
kestrel ; and Rennie's Domestic Habits of Birds (p.
248) recorded that some chaffinches cried in the
same tone at a pine- marten. This note is also

44 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

uttered in autumn and winter, more especially in
the early morning hours ; but, notwithstanding this
fact, the note appears to be less often used than any
other where a call-note might be employed.

The first call-notes of birds were probably mere
adaptations of alarm -cries, the use of which was
induced by the influence of mutual aid among
associated individuals, by which the danger -cries
would have been frequently employed. But the
necessities of the young, having relation not so
much to danger as to hunger, must have early
brought about the use of cries for food. These
simple cries, from having been effective in result,
would also have been used by the young after
leaving the nest, and might then have indicated a
desire not only for food, but also for the companion-
ship of the parents. Under these circumstances
such cries would have become call-notes.

It is probable that the first cries of the young
were merely inherited modes of expressing distress,
and were not influenced by mimicry ; for we now
find that the young of many species, of limited vocal
range, utter cries which are wholly unlike those of
their parents. This occurs in several rasorial birds,
and others.

The young of birds which rear large broods would

THE CALL- NOTE

45

make frequent use of their call - notes ; for, as the
assembly moved about in the search for food, some
of them would often be left behind, when they would
call to the others, and be answered, at least by the
parents. Most birds which rear large broods are
noisy when with their young ; thus the titmice,
goldcrest, brown wren, starling, finches, and others
make abundant use of their calls towards their
broods ; and those of them which continue the
association throughout the summer likewise retain
this vocal habit. In fact, among birds, as in man,
language is very closely related to the social instinct,
notwithstanding that its development, among certain
gregarious species, seems to be so much retarded by
fear.

Various emotions have predominated in different
species, to the exclusion of sociability or of garrulity.
The lack of variety in the voices of the larger birds
may be accounted for on the supposition that fear,
unless acute, induces silence, and that these larger

o

species, ever seeking concealment from enemies,
could not without incurring grave danger make
frequent and loud noises. Of course, in the breeding
season, the emotion of fear is frequently overcome
by that of love, and then birds often expose them-
selves to danger while singing. The most marked

46 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

instance of this which has come under my observation
occurred when a nightingale allowed me to approach
within three feet of him, without interrupting his
song — he being apparently as ignorant of my
presence as of the keen delight I derived from his
music. Hunger, again, may induce incessant labour,
like that of the woodpeckers ; or watchfulness, with
occasional repletion and consequent lethargy, as in
the Colymbidse, Raptores, and others, — all of which
conditions militate against the development of the
voice, for they are not consistent with that abundant
leisure and contemporaneous vivacity which are
necessary to song, either in birds or in man.

The persistence of certain characteristic cries,
including call-notes, among species with extended
vocal range, may be accounted for not only by the
filial mimicry of the nestlings, — and this in many
species is very powerful, — but also by the importance
of the recognition of the notes by the parents, which
are generally directed to their fledged young by the
cries of the latter ; and we may also suppose that
sexual selection has likewise tended to the per-
petuation of certain cries, for a female bird would
very probably prefer a male whose call-note closely
resembled the tone which she, when young, had so
often employed to obtain food and protection.

THE CALL- NOTE 47

The frequent similarity of the danger-cries and the
call-notes among birds physically allied, but whose
songs are quite distinct, will be discussed in the
chapter treating of the influence of heredity. It
may be here mentioned as affording strong evidence
of the original development of the call-note from the
danger-cry.

Several influences would have determined the
particular characteristics of the cries uttered by
different races of animals ; among these, the capacity
of the throat, due to a habitual mode of feeding,
also an ability to repeat a cry many times with
one breath doubtless had some effect ; and in sone-
birds the tones might have been gradually affected
by any recurrent prevalent sounds falling on the
receptive senses of successive generations of the
young. The perpetuation of characteristic notes of
birds may be easily accounted for. The recognition
of them by parent birds was of vital importance
to the young, whose cries for food would have been
effectual in proportion to their vehemence and the
certainty of their being understood. But if males
uttered songs (by which I mean vocal sounds distinct
from alarms and call-notes), they might on this
account be preferred, and in this event the call-note
would be less frequently employed in song by the

48 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

most extravagant singers. This is obviously the
fact. The blackbird, thrush, robin, and blackcap
never utter a call-note during song, but they seem
to trust only to their more original music. The
nightingale often commences its phrases by uttering
one of its call-notes. The song of the skylark is
often, in early spring, concluded in long notes which
resemble the call-note of the young skylark pro-
longed. It is obvious that the phrases of inferior
singers, such as the greenfinch, creeper, yellow
bunting, bullfinch, pied wagtail, hedge-accentor,
golden-crested wren, nuthatch, and titmice consist
more or less of repetitions of the call-notes of their
respective species.

CHAPTER V

THE SIMPLEST SONGS

At the commencement of the breeding season birds
of opposite sex call to each other ; and this vocal
exercise is especially performed by the males. I
know of no species (except, perhaps, the mute
swan) in which this behaviour does not occur. As
the increase of fear induces amongst birds in com-
pany a more frequent repetition of an alarm-cry,
so love stimulates the male to a more rapid re-
petition of his call-notes. In some species there
is apparently a diversity of call-notes ; but it will
be observed that generally a particular cry is
employed by both sexes. At the commence-
ment of this season, then, the kestrel repeats his
cry to his mate ; the rook calls loudly and in-
cessantly from the selected site for the nest ; the
tree-creeper repeats with unusual rapidity his long-
drawn and plaintive note ; the wryneck cries con-

4

50 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

tinually in rapid successive shrieks ; the ringed
plover then doubles his note (Harting, Birds of
Middlesex, p. 148); the lesser spotted woodpecker
repeats his only note, tic, tic, or krick, continuously
(Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 479) ; the pine -grosbeak also
repeats a call -note "with variations, sufficiently
often to attain the dignity of a song " (Yarrell,
vol. ii. p. 183); the greenfinch prolongs the
repetition of his common call-note, did it it ititit,
and performs extravagant feats in flight ; the
bullfinch repeats his common call-note ; the hedge-
sparrow repeats his call -squeak many times in
succession ; and even the cJiissick of the pied wag-
tail is greatly in evidence. Then another phase
ensues. The creeper repeats his cry many times
without an interval. The greenfinch adds to his
common call another call-note, tell^ tell, or yell, yell
(as it is better rendered) ; and he utters these notes
in a regular succession, thus producing a phrase
which is sung both on the wing and from a perch.
It may be suggested thus: Did it it itititit ; yell,
yell, yell ; did ititit ; yell, yell The bullfinch varies
the repetition of his notes, and thus commences a
warble. The golden - crested wren constructs a
phrase by uttering his call-squeak twice in double
time, afterwards four times in succession, and in

THE SIMPLEST SONGS 51

the latter stage the pace is accelerated towards
the close. The hedge-sparrow repeats his squeak,
then two or three very rapid notes at a lower
pitch, then his squeak again ; and by repeating
this performance more than once, he produces a
song which embodies several repetitions of his
common call-squeak. These repeated squeaks are
uttered at the same pitch, and often the phrase is
concluded with one of them. A similar method of
singing is constantly exhibited by the brown wren,
and sometimes even by the robin. The pied
wagtail at first departs but little from a mere
repetition of his call ; but later in the spring he
manages to construct a sort of jumbled song, in
which, however, his habitual notes still predominate.
Thus also the cushat gradually elaborates his song
or coo ; the stock - dove never exceeds the bare
repetition of a short, jerky coo ; and the domestic
cockerel repeats a succession of alarm-yells when
first he attains the power to essay a crow. The
yellow bunting repeats a note which he often
utters — it may be suggested by either jip or jink
— and by means of such repetitions he produces
the first part of that song which country folk have
likened to the words, A little bit of bread and
no cheese. The willow - warbler repeats his alarm

52 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

call-note — a whistle sounding like the word tewy^
and slurred upwards in this manner —

:tg=

but rendered at a higher pitch. With progressive
variations he sometimes constructs from this cry his
beautiful song, which can hardly be reproduced in
notation, but may be suggested thus :

^ff=ii^^

5*i

The above note tewy is a call - note of the
nightingale to its young, and is uttered by this
bird at the commencement of about one-fourth of
its phrases. I have often heard it repeated longer,
and gradually more drawn-out, until the well-known
long notes of the nightingale were produced in their
typical character.

Then, also, the nuthatch repeats his full-toned
cry tewit^ which at all seasons we hear about the
elms, so quickly that he produces a full, prolonged,
bubbling cry, in character resembling the rolling
" water-bubble " notes produced by a quill whistle
blown in water. The skylark, whose first efforts
towards song may be heard in autumn and

THE SIMPLEST SONGS 53

winter, follows the same method of repeating the
call -note for a song — a method which he soon
abandons. In early spring the phrases of the
starling are concluded with a harsh, squealing cry,
which frequent observation leads me to designate
its note of passion. This cry is sometimes ad-
dressed as the most vehement call to the female,
and is also sometimes uttered when she is not near.
It is rarely heard in July, August, or September,
I have heard the tawny owl repeat his hoot so
frequently as to produce a sound like the bubbling
note of the nuthatch. Dr. A. G. Butler, F.L.S.,
informs me that his zebra finches repeat the call-
note four or five times as a song.

In all the above-mentioned British species, and
in some of their allies, which represent many
avian races, the males court the females partly by
the repetition of notes which we observe to be
employed in other circumstances as call-notes ; and
in some species these notes are repeated so rapidly
that a phrase is constructed. But some species
have never advanced beyond the mere repetition
of their call-notes. Of such are the mallard, stock-
dove, kestrel, blue tit, and others of limited vocal
range. Mr. Hudson, in his book on La Plata (p.
258), has some suggestive observations on the in-

54 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

herited simple song of the tinamu. Rhynchotus
rufescens, he says, has a song or call " heard oftenest
towards evening, which is composed of five modulated
notes, flutelike in character, very expressive, and
uttered by many individuals answering each other as
they sit apart concealed in the grass." This appears
to be an invariable strain, frequently employed, and
transmitted to the young by inheritance. In some
birds the call-note is extended, as it is by the
nuthatch, which prolongs its full -toned short cry
tewit in the production of a loud mellow whistle
slurred upward in about the interval of a fifth. It
may be whistled slowly thus :

Smorz.

About March, April, and the beginning of May,
the skylark nearly always concludes its song, while
descending from the sky, with a repeated plaintive
whistle, which descends in pitch, and at this season
is often uttered during the phrase. This cry is
hardly to be distinguished from the call of the
young skylark, and may be whistled slowly thus :

—Q-

P^=^p-

-S^=^*

Smorz. igL_

z^-^— 1=

_S_P_

^r~

Later in the season the bird soars less when

THE SIMPLEST SONGS 55

singing, and generally omits this cry from his song,
which then is rarely concluded with it.

I have heard a tree-pipit repeat in his phrases
the squeak which is his call-note when he is migrat-
ing. Sometimes the chaffinch, when he begins to
sing, in March or earlier, repeats the call -note he
uttered when a nestling, and not that one he em-
ployed in autumn. He will repeat this note many
times together, and thus produce the first part of
his song.

The coarse call -note of the brown wren may
be distinguished (though it is always uttered
obscurely) in about one-half of the phrases sung
in spring ; it is sometimes uttered twice in one
phrase. The goldfinch, house - sparrow — for un-
doubtedly the latter occasionally tries to sing — and
the linnet appear to construct their songs wholly
of call-notes and danger-cries. The blue tit, great
tit, coal tit, and jackdaw have but little more origin-
ality. In the songs of these birds, and in those of
the nightingale, swallow, grasshopper-warbler, stone-
chat, cirl, yellow, and common buntings, wood -wren,
redstart, hedge -accentor, and others, are strong
indications of the construction of phrases, wholly or
partly, by the repetition of single cries.

Under the influence of habit, or of physical

56 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

strength, the phrase is sometimes modified in
length and in force ; and is often modulated in
approximately the same successive intervals of
pitch, so that a kind of musical strain is produced.
The length of a phrase would obviously be de-
pendent, firstly, upon the number of breaths neces-
sary to its expression ; thus, if a bird employed but
one breath, as a cock does in crowing, the length
of the phrase could not be great ; but if respiration
could be continued during the song, as it is during
the extended phrases of the skylark, starling, grass-
hopper-warbler, and many others, the utterance
would be limited only by fatigue of voice. It
appears that many extended phrases are accom-
panied by a movement of the lungs similar to that
which occurs in us during laughter ; and this seems
to induce a proportionately rapid movement of the
wings, for when the notes are uttered slowly, as, e.g.^
in the comparatively slow song of the willow -wren
and the long notes of the wood -wren, the wings
are very slightly expanded during or after each
note, just as they are during each caw of the rook ;
but when the wood -wren sings its sibilous song,
which is only a rapid repetition of one cry, the
wings are shaken with increasing rapidity as the
phrase proceeds to its ecstatic close, which is

THE SIMPLEST SONGS 57

accompanied by a trembling of the whole of the
body, and seems to be the very expression of
passion. This movement of the wings in accord-
ance with the frequency with which a single cry
is repeated may be observed in the yellow bunting,
cirl bunting, whitethroat, lesser whitethroat, and
several other birds.

It is not surprising that bird-phrases should be
repeated in the same intervals of pitch, or that the
distinguishable notes which they include should
follow the same orders of succession, as habitually
occurs in all the more inferior singers ; for amongst
ourselves we detect a corresponding influence of
habit in the wearying repetitions of street hawkers
and railway porters. Just as loudness of voice may
have been, and probably was, a factor in the sur-
vival of certain young, so a vehement and forceful
exclamation of call-notes uttered by males to females
may very possibly have been perpetuated, firstly,
by the agency of selection, and, secondly, by the
imitativeness of the young. The rivalry and emula-
tion of the males, also, may have likewise instigated
the introduction of modifications or additions to the
phrases ; and these, if agreeable to the females,
would probably have been continued in succeeding
generations by the agency of imitation.

58 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

It is not assumed that the statements in this
chapter can be cited as proofs that all songs have
been developed from call-notes ; for in some species,
as in the domestic cock, the attempted song is more
like the danger-cry than any call-note ; but I con-
ceive that the evidence which I have brought for-
ward is of value as indicating the history of the
songs of many species of birds. It shows that the
songs were, at first, mere repetitions of call -notes,
or possibly of defiance-cries, which have since been
more rapidly uttered and varied, with the result
that novel strains have been slowly developed. The
evidence adduced is but a small portion of that
available ; and in this respect I have here, and
indeed throughout the book, for the sake of brevity,
instanced a few diverse species as representative of
their respective genera.

CHAPTER VI

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH
BIRD-SONG

I. Songs are generally uttered by male birds only.
Females which sing are generally mentioned by
authors as exceptions to this rule : such are the
female great grey shrike and the female Lapland
bunting. The female starling sings : I have often
observed a pair warbling together near their nest.
Bechstein observed that nightingales, when courting
each other, " utter a gentle subdued warbling."
Gilbert White noticed that while the quack of the
common duck is loud and sonorous, the voice of the
drake is scarcely discernible (^Nat. Hist. Selborne, p.
1 1 6). Rennie recorded the singing of females of
the following : redstart, blackbird, willow-warbler,
and bullfinch {Domestic Hab. BirdSy p. 262) ; and
he observed that the songs of the females are

6o EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

like the recording or recovering of voice by the
males. In this connection may be mentioned some
duets noticed by Mr. Hudson in his Naturalist in
La Plata. Describing certain South American tree-
creepers, he says, " On meeting, the male and
female, standing close together and facing each
other, utter their clear ringing concert, one emitting
loud single measured notes, while the notes of its
fellow are rapid rhythmical triplets ; their voices
have a joyous character, and seem to accord, thus
producing a kind of harmony" {op. cit. p. 256).
In one species these duets are practised by the
young while yet in the nest. Mr. Hudson says of
the South American tyrant fly-catcher that in a
majority of cases their songs are simply joyous
excited duets between male and female. The songs
of the woodhewers, or Dendrocolaptidce, also are
chiefly duets. " In the red oven-bird {Furnarius)
the duet consists of triplets uttered by the male,
with a strong accent on the first note, while the
female keeps even time with single notes. The
fi?tale of this performance consists of three or four
notes uttered by the second bird alone, in an ascend-
ing scale, the last very piercing " {pp. cit.).

Darwin considered bird -song a charm or a
call - note addressed to the female {Descent of

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 6i

Man, p. 368), and such it probably is during the
breeding season ; but the first songs of immature
birds, such as the young skylark, robin, and thrush,
cannot reasonably be considered to be directly
occasioned by the emotion of love.

2. Song is not uttered until birds have nearly
attained their full size. Mr. W. H. Hudson asserts
{pp. cit.) that the young of the red oven-bird when
only partially fledged sing the song of their parents ;
this is unlike the hunger-cry, which resembles that
of other fledgelings. The Rev. H. A. Macpherson
informs me that bullfinches try to pipe as soon as
they can perch, and that young hawfinches when
in confinement sing almost as early.

3. Birds sing most frequently at early morning
or at evening, and in the former case they
commence singing in much less light than that
which remains when they cease in the evening.
They also sing in warm, fine weather, rather than
during cold or fog. But indifference to weather is
by no means infrequent, for many birds sing much
during rain — for example, the blackbird, robin, willow-
warbler, and chiffchaff — while house-sparrows are
particularly noisy during rain, especially in winter,
and when they are in the shelter of a tree. The
sparrows near my bedroom — a numerous population

62 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

— chirp noisily every morning except when frost is
severe ; and then, if the cold is intense, not a single
chirp can I hear ; but directly a thaw comes, all the
birds at once announce the change of temperature.
The nightingale, grasshopper-warbler, sedge-warbler,
and landrail may be mentioned as singing at unusual
hours.

The stimulus which induces birds to sing particu-
larly at dawn may be the same as that which leads
them to the same exercise in the rain — the pleasure
of anticipating approaching incidents : in the one
case, daybreak, which brings comparative safety to
the waking creatures ; and in the other, the coming
forth of many kinds of insects and larvae. The
insect-eaters, at least, would be able to appreciate
the latter event, and that may possibly account
for their singing more than the finches during rain.
There is nothing to show that erotic emotions are
in any way excited by dawn or by rain. The habit
of singing early and late may also have been en-
couraged by the enforced leisure which many birds
must then undergo, when they cannot seek food,
and when their young need no sustenance. The
nightingale's habit of nocturnal singing is easily
understood : the male sings to attract the migrating
female, and does not seek her. She flies by night.

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 63

as is the habit of the male ; the latter, therefore,
has very naturally developed the habit of singing
at night, not only when looking for the advent of a
mate, but even after she has arrived. Bechstein
observed that the nightingales of some districts sang
by day, and those of others by night, a local varia-
tion which has been several times recorded. Mr.
Hudson states that, in a village within an hour of
London, the nightingales sing only by day {Birds in
a Village^ p. 8).

Yarrell observed that whenever at evening the
robin perches high, and begins to sing merrily, the
following day will be fair {Brit. Birds, vol. iv.
p. 308) ; but I cannot say that I have noticed
this as a definite incident, for in autumn the robin
habitually sings after a storm, and from an elevated
position. The effect of rain is observable in the
cries of some birds which, like the house-sparrow,
cannot be called singers. Wilson observed that
ospreys {Pandion haliaetus) " gambol in the air
before a change of weather to rain " ( Am. Orn.^
vol. ii. p. 115); he also remarked that the great
northern diver {Coly^nbus glacialis) calls much
before rain {ibid. vol. iii. p. 1 09) ; and that
a woodpecker {Picus pileatus) near rivers is
noted for '* making a loud and almost incessant

64 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

cackling before wet weather" [ibid. vol. ii. p. 20).
Yarrell has stated that the term " storm cock " was
applied to the mistle- thrush because of that bird
" giving his song both before and during the occur-
rence of wind and rain." It appears to me, however,
that this thrush sings most during bright sunshine,
especially in the first three months of the year.
The domestic cock readily perceives an approach
of rain, and announces the fact by crowing.

Dense fog is a powerful deterrent of song : I
have several times witnessed its almost immediate
effect in silencing singers. On one occasion this
was particularly noticeable. One day in January
several starlings, robins, and a brown wren were in
full song in a valley, when suddenly a low cloud swept
up the valley, shutting out the sunshine, and render-
ing indistinct or invisible the hedgerow elms. The
songs abruptly ceased. After the lapse of some
ten minutes the cloud passed away, the sun suddenly
shone, and all the birds recommenced their songs.
I had observed carefully only a few of these,
when another cloud obscured the scene as quickly
as its precursor, and at once the songs were aban-
doned. I waited during a longer period of misti-
ness, and then turned homeward ; yet I had not
gone beyond earshot of the place when the second

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 65

cloud was swept away, and I heard the birds once
more resume their songs.

There is no reason why we should not credit
birds with the possession of a sense of pleasure in
the aspect of their surroundings. Sterland seems
to have had some such idea when he wrote that the
song of the robin in autumn " lacks the joyousness
of spring, and the bird, in sympathy with the
departing season, seems to breathe a plaintive
and melancholy strain " {Birds of Sherwood Forest,
p. 63). At that period, especially on still days, the
song is often preceded by the utterance of a slow
succession of sad -sounding repetitions of the call-
squeak. " Many species which become silent about
midsummer resume their notes in September (or
October), as do the thrush, blackbird, woodlark,
willow-wren, etc. Are birds induced to sing again
because the temperament of autumn resembles
that of spring ? " (White's Selborne). These
autumn songs may be induced partly by an in-
clination towards love, although both robin and
starling often sing in August when quite alone ; the
former bird, however, in song obviously challenges
others to fight. It appears that only the young
larks, thrushes, and blackbirds of the year sing in
September or October.

5

66 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

In suggesting that some wild birds may derive
pleasure from the appearance of their surroundings,
I do but put them on a par with the homing
pigeon. This bird, in order to return to a former
abode, will abandon both mate and young. The
male pigeons will " home " better when their mates
are sitting than at other periods. It may be as
well to remark here that the homeward flight of
these pigeons is not directed by any blind instinct,
but by sight and memory ; for the birds cannot
find their way through thick fog, even from the
distance of a few hundred yards. I have excellent
authority for these statements. It has been noticed
in many birds that the same sites for nests are
adopted year after year.

In this connection may be mentioned the " in-
strumental music " which many writers have ob-
served, and which may be defined as consisting of
sounds other than vocal sounds uttered by birds, as,
for instance, the sounds caused by the smiting to-
gether of wings, drumming sounds produced by
rapid blows of the beak, and similar noises. And
in conjunction with this feature we may notice the
strange and seemingly purposeless dancing and
other antics by which song may be accompanied.
Mr. Hudson writes : " There are human dances in

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 67

which one person performs at a time, the rest of
the company looking on ; and some birds in widely
separated genera have dances of the same kind.
A striking example is the Rupicola^ or cock of the
rock, of tropical South America. A mossy, level
spot of earth surrounded by bushes is selected for
a dancing-place, and kept well cleared of sticks and
stones. Around this area the birds assemble, when
a cock bird, with vivid orange-coloured crest and
plumage, steps into it, and, with spreading wings
and tail, begins a series of movements as if danc-
ing a minuet ; finally, carried away with excitement,
he leaps and gyrates in the most astonishing manner,
until, becoming exhausted, he retires and another
bird takes his place."

4. Many phrases sung by the better singers
tend to rise in pitch towards the end. There are
abundant exceptions to this rule — for example, the
songs of the chaffinch, willow-wren, greenfinch, green
woodpecker, and others — but it prevails in songs
of the wood-warbler, nightingale, blackcap, golden-
crested wren, blackbird, and yellow bunting.

5. Phrases are uttered with increasing vehe-
mence towards the close, as though the emotion which
caused them became intensified during expression.
In April the starling, with flapping wings, illustrates

68 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

this theory. With the exception of the mono-
tonous songs of the nightjar, grasshopper-warbler,
and cirl-bunting, there are few which do not ex-
hibit this feature. Even the stock -dove's jerky
coo evidently becomes more vehement as his song
proceeds.

6. Individual variation is generally to be per-
ceived, if at all, at the end of the phrase ; and
similarly, the first parts of the phrases sung by allied
birds have most resemblance to common types.
This may be observed in the whitethroat, lesser
whitethroat, blackcap, greenfinch, brown linnet,
lesser redpoll, siskin, sedge-warbler, reed-warbler,
and in the buntings.

7. The alarm -cries and call -notes (which are
generally common both to males and females) of
allied birds are more alike than are their songs —
which are almost invariably exhibited by males
only.

8. The cries of allied young are more alike than
are the cries of allied adults. This, and the preceding
subject, will be considered in relation to divergence
from the general to the special as exemplified in
the voices of birds, and in the chapter on heredity.

9. Only small birds properly sing. This is the
statement of Darwin, who mentioned the Australian

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 69

Menura Alberti as a notable exception to the rule ;
for the bird, " which is about the size of a half-grown
turkey, not only mocks other birds, but its own
whistle is exceedingly beautiful and varied " {Descent
of Man, p. 371). The crested screamer {CJiauna
chavaria) is another exception.

Why are singing birds small ? Is it because
certain female birds, in choosing their mates, have
always neglected the attractions of size and strength
in favour of music ? Or is it because the larger
birds of a species are more attractive to the kinds
which prey on them, and hence have become silent
through fear? Or, again, are small individuals
naturally more vivacious than others of superior
size ? Certain it is that the largest birds of various
races are by no means good singers [e.g. raven,
mistle- thrush, hawfinch, cushat or ringdove, mute
swan, eagle), and that some of the smallest of their
allies are more musical {e.g. jackdaw, nightingale,
linnet, turtle-dove, duck, and chanting falcon — which
is known to sing somewhat fluently). Probably all
these influences have combined to render small but
musical individuals of various species successful in
the contest for mates. It is also probable that mode
of life has affected the development of voice as well
as mere size. Darwin says that " all the common

70 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

songsters belong to the order of Insessores (or
perchers), and their vocal organs are much more
complex than those of other birds ; yet it is a
singular fact that some of the Insessores, such as
ravens, crows, and magpies, possess the proper
apparatus (Bishop, in Todd's Cyclop, of Anat. and
Phys., vol. iv. p. 1496), though they never sing, and
do not naturally modulate their voices to any great
extent" {Descent of Man, p. 370). It is probable
that the Insessores, and vast numbers of pre-existing
species, have always been of arboreal habits, and
have thus been dependent on the voice for a means
of intercommunication when at some little distance
apart, and especially for a means of announcing the
approach of an enemy through the thick foliage in
which so many of the insectivores spend most of
their time. Consequently their voices, and simul-
taneously their hearing, would have been gradually
developed ; and the latter feature, from having been
so continually exercised in the vital necessity of
detecting signals of danger, or mere cries of distress,
would have become at once delicate, critical, and
accurate, both in males and in females ; and the
latter would therefore have been competent to detect,
and perhaps liable to have been attracted by, any ab-
normal powers of melodious utterance in their suitors.

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS

The conjunctive abnormal development of the
organs of hearing and of the voice in birds does
not prove that the ear was evolved earlier than the
voice. However, we know that many birds with
acute hearing do not sing much, and also that some
animals which have ears have no voices — such are
our British lizards, at least — it is therefore probable
that the ear was developed prior to the voice, and
that its powers were greatly increased before the
voice became so strong as it is in some of our birds.
For the voice is only occasionally employed even by
some of the best singers, which are always acutely
sensitive to any alarming sounds.

The present evident necessity for the frequent
use of the voice by arboreal birds is proved by the
noisiness of flocks of them, and by that of family
associations of a few individuals, such as those of
the titmice, nuthatch, etc. Birds which have hardly
more than one cry are compelled to make abundant
use of it, if they live in the obscurity of trees : such
are the woodpeckers. It is practically as true to say
that all the arboreal birds are small, as to say that
all the singing -birds are small ; and it is evident
that a life in trees is as conducive to smallness as it
appears to be to a development of the sense of
hearing. Leaf- eating and bark -boring grubs and

72 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

insects are not sufficiently abundant to support any
but small creatures ; and most of those animals
which subsist upon this food have to work hard for
it, at least during the greater part of the year. Also,
small birds would have an advantage over larger
ones in the pursuit of insects among dense foliage.
Thus the trees can support a numerous population
of small birds, though offering but meagre fare to
larger kinds ; and the birds which dwell among the
trees have not only less need of caution in the
utterance of cries than have birds on open land,
which are visible from a distance, but their sense of
hearing is continually exercised, as we have seen.

The ravens, crows, and magpies mentioned by
Darwin as being not given to song, are very observant
of sounds ; and many of them are garrulous, though,
on account of their timidity, their loquacity is not
readily observed by us when they are in a wild
state. If these larger birds, or their remoter
ancestors, had been compelled by their size to
abandon arboreal life for the open land, or had in-
creased in size in consequence of such abandonment,
they might have retained the apparatus (which they
actually possess) for singing, even when their more
exposed position rendered song an accomplishment
too dangerous to be continued.

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 73

10. Accent in song. Many species, and especially
the brown wren, hedge-accentor, thrush, and blackcap,
accentuate certain notes in their songs, thus producing
a rhythmical progression throughout the phrase. The
blackbird often exhibits the same feature.

11. Birds which sing well and continuously are
generally clad in sober hues ; and the converse is
equally true, namely, that brightly coloured birds
are not singers. There are, of course, some well-
known exceptions — such as the American bluebird,
our own goldfinch, and the great titmouse. If, as
appears to be the case, brightly coloured birds and
singing -birds have been developed from common
types, there must have been some cause for this
divorcement of colour from song in the avian races.
Is it not probable that, just as some female birds may
have been influenced by the songs of their suitors,
so others may have been similarly affected by the
brightness of hues which certain males may have
displayed ; and also that as arboreal birds may have
developed a great sensitiveness of hearing by
listening to the notes of others hidden from them by
leaves, so other birds, from specially exercising the
eyes for a similar purpose, may have developed a
habit of scrutinising every object very intently, and
thus have been induced, all unconsciously, to prefer

74 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

mates who appealed to their sense of sight rather
than to that of hearing ? But, it may be asked, do
birds which Hve in trees ever depend upon their
eyes rather than upon their hearing for the detection
of an enemy ? In our temperate cHmate there are
practically no enemies whose approach through trees
will not be more readily perceived by ear than by
eye ; but in tropical climates there are other foes to
reckon with — a numerous race of tree serpents,
whose approach is silent, yet terribly dangerous, and
whose colours often resemble the general tone of
their surroundings. These animals are great
enemies of birds, who must watch carefully for them,
as well as listen for sounds announcing the arrival
of other predacious creatures. If such watchfulness
would have had the effect of developing and
rendering critical the powers of sight, it may have
induced birds to prefer mates whose hues appealed
particularly to this sense ; and it would thus explain
why arboreal birds which live in tropical climates
are often so brightly coloured. But the arboreal
birds in temperate climates have few or none of
these serpent enemies to fear ; hence they depend
upon the ear rather than upon the eye for the
detection of an enemy, and when hearing no alarm
they may be at ease.

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 75

12. The primary necessity to the development of
varied song in species or individual is leisure. One
cause of the persistence of the songs of caged birds
may be found in this result of their changed
condition of life — that they have nothing to
do but to sing. The wild bird has always plenty
to notice and consider, — the approach of various
creatures — men, beasts, hawks, and other birds ; the
sounds which these produce, and which signify
various degrees of safety, or of peril ; the indications
of food in air, or tree, or on the ground ; and, lastly,
the state of the atmosphere, and the various weather-
signs which all birds observe; — such incidents as
these occupy the wakeful hours of the wild bird.
But the caged bird — often secluded from all com-
munication with his kind (one, perchance, of a
gregarious species), without the necessity of seeking
food, with a horizon limited perhaps by a smoky
garden, perhaps by a dingy window — can take no
exercise but in hopping from perch to perch, across
and across his cage ; and can hear no call-notes but
his own, which he repeats again and again, and, if
he has been reared in a cage, his own song, which
he seems to utter as much for the sake of such
occupation as it affords, as to express by means of
it any desire for a mate, or any pleasure in his

76 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

surroundings. Rennie could suggest no key to the
diversity of learning in captive birds, especially in
the nightingale, which will learn the notes of other
birds and retain them after it has heard its own
species — " unless it be that, from want of other
amusement, it (the captive) listens more when it is
confined" {Domestic Habits of Birds ^ p. 278).

Mr. Hudson raises his voice against what he
considers a pestilent delusion, namely, that all wild
animals exist in constant fear of an attack from
numerous enemies watching for an opportunity to
spring upon and destroy them. He says that the
truth is, that they are free from apprehension unless
in the actual presence of danger. " Suspicious at
times they may be — but the emotion is so slight,
the action so almost automatic, that the singing-bird
will fly to another bush a dozen yards away and at
once resume his interrupted song " {Birds in a
Village^ p. 8). The demeanour of wild birds seems
to me not to bear out this view. Except in the
season of love — with many creatures a period of
indiscretion — they are all keenly watchful for the
approach of enemies. Such birds as the woodpeckers
and titmice, when bark-searching, or others feeding
on open ground, are very persistent in diverting
their attention from their expected food, in order to

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 77

discover at the earliest opportunity the approach of
an enemy.

There are times when birds which sing practically
throughout the year, such as the starling and robin,
abandon their songs. Such an occasion is observable
when their young are nearly ready to quit the nest.
Then these birds will sing at early morning and late
evening, before and after the labour of the day — the
supplying of the wants of their young — has been
performed ; but when the young leave the nest, and
parents are occupied all day in obtaining food for
them, the songs are quite abandoned, from the very
simple cause that the birds have no time for singing.
How can the robin, hunting everywhere for insects
and worms, waste a moment when his expectant
young demand his constant care ; or how would it
be possible for a starling, which, at the same period,
may often be seen panting from fatigue (especially
on a hot, dry day), to sing his usually long and noisy
phrases? These birds, and others in like circum-
stances, do not then sing, because they are either
seeking food for their young, or are intently watching
lest enemies approach. In either event they have
not the necessary leisure in which to practise song.
I suggest that a want of leisure may have been a
potent cause of the lack of individual variation of

78 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

pnrases in the birds of the tropical regions, in which
locaHties a redundant population of birds is kept in
check by the attacks of enemies, or by mutual
contests, rather than by changes of climate, by which
in temperate lands it is periodically reduced. We
must remember that in the latter places the arrival
of warm weather calls forth sustenance not only
sufficient for the birds which have wintered there,
but also enough for swarms of immigrants who
crowd to the feast, and even rear their young with
this superabundant food. When the winter in a
temperate land is severe, so greatly are the food
supplies lessened that vast numbers of hardy birds
perish by starvation, though they seek never so
persistently for food ; but directly the weather
becomes genial, the creatures upon which they
subsist spring into life on every side, and then some
of the birds can spend long hours in doing nothing,
or in singing. This increased leisure is a first
necessity to the singing of our native species ; and I
submit that the want of it may fairly be suggested
as a cause of the lack of varied song not only
amongst tropical birds, but also in those which in
any part of the earth obtain their food in a par-
ticularly laborious manner — such as the woodpeckers
and creepers, which are practically always at work.

NOTICEABLE INCIDENTS 79

I 3. Birds which are habitually laborious, watch-
ful, stealthy, or accustomed to gorge themselves
with food, are habitually silent. Several birds
exhibit all these characteristics. Among watchful
birds may be mentioned the kestrel, butcher-bird, and
others of similar habits, which watch for prey ; also
rasorial birds, most of which live or feed on open
land, and for this reason are compelled to watch for
the arrival of their enemies, many of which,
approaching in flight, may be seen at a great
distance. Birds stealthy in movement are generally
those which attempt to take their prey unaware —
such as the hawks — or which seek to escape un-
observed from their enemies ; of the latter the
pheasant is a notable example. Birds preying on
animals of comparatively large size generally gorge
themselves at every meal ; and in this condition they
become inert, and apparently are equally passive in
mind, uttering hardly a sound while digesting their
heavy burden. Of this kind are the divers generally,
and also the larger predacious birds. Many of these
last are alternately watchful, stealthy, and lethargic,
as they seek, attack, or digest their prey. Song is
foreign to their natures, but their usually loud shouts,
screams, or calls, are employed as signals when
they have wandered far apart in the search for food.

8o EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

14. Flight in song. — It seems to me that flight
is not resorted to during song merely to enable the
singer to utter his notes from an elevation, but that
in several instances the manner of the flight itself is
intended to suggest to a female bird the attention of
a suitor ; and that when so employed it is to some
extent analogous to that flapping of the wings
which gives expression to the wants of many young
birds when about to be fed.

The greenfinch sometimes exhibits, perhaps, the
most characteristic flight when singing, its wings
being fanned slowly, and with their widest sweep.
The sedge- warbler sometimes behaves in a similar
manner. The wood-warbler flies in song with the
same stroke of wing, as I have seen it, at the
distance of eight or ten feet. Individuals differ in
the extent to which this habit is followed. One at
Leigh woods flew during twenty-seven out of thirty
repetitions of the sibilous phrase. The legs of the
wood-warbler are extended during this performance,
like those of a rook just after it leaves the ground ;
in the former bird this attitude probably permits of
a slower flight, just as in the latter it undoubtedly
favours the execution of a more vertical ascent. I
have seen a blackbird dart from his perch, in the
middle of a phrase, and gesticulate while singing

FLIGHT IN SONG

on the wing, and descend with a sweeping flight on

wide-extended wings. It is possible that songs are

uttered more easily when the wings are moved

slowly ; but however this may be, there is no doubt

that many male birds sing while on the wing. Chats,

warblers, finches, buntings, and pipits have been

observed to fly when singing. Some birds, such as

the common bunting and wood-warbler, habitually

shiver the wings when singing rapid notes ; and

this suggests that the shiver referred to is caused

by the movements of the lungs ; as already stated,

these, in many phrases, seem to be similar to those

which occur during human laughter. Mr. Hudson

describes the extraordinary song - flight of the

crested screamer, a bird of about the size of our

heron. He says : " The chakars, like the skylark,

love to soar upwards when singing, and at such

times, when they have risen till their dark bodies

appear like floating specks on the blue sky, or until

they disappear from sight altogether, the notes

become wonderfully etherealised by distance to a

soft silvery sound, and it is then very delightful to

listen to them. The chakar, ... so ponderous a

fowl, leaves its grass plot and soars purely for

recreation, taking so much pleasure in its aerial

exercises that in bright warm weather in winter and

6

82 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

Spring it spends a great part of the day in the upper
regions of the air."

Many birds give a fluttering or shaking of
the wings as a means of address to their mates ;
such are the starling, female house-sparrow, green-
finch, and very many other birds which authors have
noticed in all parts of the world. The young of
many, if not of most species flutter their wings
when being fed by their parents ; and it is a
common thing for vehement singers to flap their
wings or, like the redstart, shake the feathers in
their tails when singing. The lark and its near
ally, the tree- pipit, fly much more during song in
early spring, when they are courting, than in June
and July, when their young are out of the nest.

15. Ventriloquism. — In regions where the
enemies of birds are numerous, individuals having
the power to utter call-notes in such a manner that
the exact spot whence the sounds proceeded could
not be determined by enemies, would probably
enjoy a consequent advantage in the battle of life,
and would not necessarily be prejudiced by this
circumstance when seeking mates, who would be dis-
covered as soon as they had alighted in the vicinity
of the exclaimers. Certain it is that several good
observers of bird-notes have been deceived by the

SINGING IN CHORUS 83

so-called ventriloquial powers of some kinds of
birds ; and it is possible that the lower animals
might make the same mistake.

16. Singing in chorus. — Observers have recorded
the simultaneous singing of many birds of the same
species when associated in a flock — an incident by
no means limited to one kind of birds. Wilson
relates that this habit has been noticed in the
following American birds : the rice troupial {D.
oryzivoriis), the red-winged starling, and the gold-
finch (/^ tristis). It may be observed in the
common British starling and linnet. The screaming
of the adult swift {Cypselus apus) is occasionally
uttered in chorus, not more than once or twice by
a solitary swift, and sometimes continuously by a
number flying together. I have seen seven male
swallows singing together perched on telegraph
wires.

The starling appears to sing in chorus un-
intentionally, from the mere fact of several singers
being together, but on two occasions I have known
several starlings join in concluding a certain musical
phrase commenced by one of their number — a
performance which was repeated so many times
consecutively as to be remarkable. Directly one of
them began the phrase with the following notes : —

84 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

t

'^^-

the others instantly joined in with the concluding
notes :

\=^

The whole phrase was

t

lEE^

S^

This incident occurred in the churchyard at Bisley,
Gloucestershire, and was repeated there on several
days when I visited the spot. There were about
six starlings singing. The intervals were fairly
correct, and the unison was seemingly perfect ; from
which we may infer that the phrase had been much
practised by the birds, having possibly been origin-
ally learned by one of them from some captive, or
from the church music, which during eight centuries
or more has been heard in that place. I also heard
the same song uttered in the same way by starlings
at the Conegre, three miles from Bisley, and in the
following year I again heard it at the same places ;
I have never heard it elsewhere. This was the only
instance of what may be called intentional chorus-

SINGING IN CHORUS 85

singing that I have observed. Mr. Hudson, how-
ever, has recorded a wonderful occurrence of it in the
crested screamer of La Plata : — " Travelling alone
one summer day, I came at noon to a lake on the
Pampas, called Kakel — a sheet of water narrow
enough for one to see across. Chakars in countless
numbers were gathered along its shores ; but they
were all arranged in well-defined flocks, averaging
about five hundred birds in each flock. These
flocks seemed to extend all round the lake, and had
probably been driven by the drought from all the
plains around to this spot. Presently one flock
near m.e began singing, and continued their power-
ful chant for three or four minutes ; when they
ceased the next flock took up the strain, and after
it the next, and so on, until the notes of the flocks
on the opposite shore came floating strong and clear
across the water, then passed away, growing fainter
and fainter, until once more the sound approached
me, travelling round to my side again. The effect
was very curious, and I was astonished at the
orderly way in which each flock awaited its turn
after the first flock had given the signal " (op. cit.
p. 227).

CHAPTER VII

THE INFLUENCE OF HEREDITY IN
THE PERPETUATION OF THE CRIES OF BIRDS

It is clear that birds inherit the desire and power
to sing, and style of song, and that some definite
cries are perpetuated solely by the same agency.
The young of the common fowl, turkey, pheasant,
partridge, duck, and goose (at least) inherit their
cries ; and, whether reared naturally or artificially,
are equally willing and able to employ them upon
the appropriate occasions. But, so far as regards
common chickens, this observation is not in accord
with the opinion of Professor Hill-Tout (Principal
of Buckland College, Vancouver), who writes to me
as follows : —

" I have noticed that chicks reared by hand
present many interesting differences from your point
of view from those bred entirely by a hen. With
the mother, they show signs of fear of human beings

HEREDITY 87

much sooner than those which never had a mother
hen to look after them. This I judged to arise from
the fussiness and anxiety of the mother in the early
days of their life. She sounds her warning and
danger-notes so frequently that the emotions of the
chicks are perpetually stirred; and they, too, become
fearful and suspicious, and frequently sound an alarm
without any apparent reason. With hand-bred chicks
this is the reverse, and the alarm and danger-notes
are uttered much later in life and very much less
often ; and the alarm-notes of other fowls do not
seem to affect them nearly so much as they do
chicks reared by a hen. The conclusion I came to
on this head was, that though the sounds emitted by
chicks are undoubtedly instinctive, and, at first, of
little or no value as warning cries to others, they do
soon acquire a suggestive value of danger, in the
minds of other chicks, but that this emotional im-
port is more the result of association and experience
than something inherited."

Chicks hatched in incubators, however, will
utter distinct alarm-notes, even when but a day old.
The Rev. H. A. Macpherson, whose contributions to
ornithological science are well known, writes of some
young golden plover, hatched indoors, that as soon
as they could run piped like the old birds, whose

88 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

note they had never heard {i7i Hit). The Rev. A.
R. Winnington-Ingram, a careful observer, informed
me that he had heard the cry of the lapwing uttered
by young birds of that species while in their shells.
There could have been no mistake about the matter,
for the eggs containing the birds had then been
removed to the rectory at Lassington. Birds also
may inherit a knowledge of the cries of their parents,
and some of them when only lately hatched, or,
according to Mr. Hudson, when chipping their way
out of the shells, immediately become silent if the
parent utters a cry of alarm in the vicinity.

The latter observer w^as of the opinion that some
young of the rhea, or South American ostrich, reared
by him, had so strongly inherited this knowledge,
that, when he imitated the alarm-cry of the species,
they ran to him for shelter. But it appears that the
birds in question had been captured "just after they
had hatched out," and therefore they might possibly
have been partly educated by their parent, for we
know that very young birds are generally apt pupils.
Mr. Hudson also records similar instances of inherit-
ance in a South American tinamu and the oven-
bird, the young of which, when only a day or two
old, utter the full cries or songs of their respective
parents {Naturalist in La Plata). Apparently, birds

HEREDITY 89

which inherit their cries never imitate the notes of
other birds. It is probable that the birds which now
inherit cries have always done so, and that the notes
have been partly developed by the agency of selection,
acting on slight and accidental modulations ; for,
despite the force of inheritance, variations are of
frequent occurrence.

It might be well here to notice that there are some
species of song-birds in which both cries and songs
are perpetuated, not by heredity, but solely by imita-
tion, though whether the mimicry is voluntary or
involuntary would be difficult to prove.

It will be observed that the young of certain
species, such as the fowl, pheasant, partridge, turkey,
swan, duck, cuckoo, etc., though inheriting the notes
of their parents, do not at first utter all of them, but
gradually acquire them in course of progress towards
maturity. This feature may be consequent upon
physical development ; but the young of the golden
plover, lapwing, tinamu, and oven-bird possess, as
we have seen, the full notes of their parents. This
divergence of habit cannot be attributed to any
difference in the relative size of the species, for the
tinamu is nearly as large as a fowl; but it indicates
that the cries most fully uttered by the young have
been inherited during the longest period.

90 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

We know that certain birds inherit their cries.
I propose now to call attention to certain sounds
which may be called " family cries," because they are
common to species which exhibit physical affinities,
and have therefore been classified as belonging to the
same families or groups of birds. In dealing with
this subject, I do not purpose to distinguish notes
perpetuated by inheritance from those perpetuated
by mimicry. If the young of some song-birds
acquire every danger-cry and call -note solely by
imitating the voices of their parents, and keep strictly
to these models, and the notes are common to all
birds of the same species respectively, a similarity
between those notes in allied species is just as
valuable an indication of a common origin as it
would have been if the perpetuation of the notes had
resulted from inheritance. For, in some species,
filial mimicry of voice seems to be as powerful as
inheritance of form and colour ; but this occurs
only in singing birds or in their allies.

In this chapter it will be necessary to mention
many specific and other cries, in such a manner as
to convey a definite idea of the sounds under con-
sideration. I know how difficult of realisation such
attempts must be ; yet I hope that by means of
descriptions of the occasions, and of the manners of

HEREDITY 91

birds, when such cries are uttered, in conjunction
with a careful suggestion of the tones employed, the
reader will be enabled to understand my meaning,
even if he have not previously been familiar with the
actual cries indicated. I feel sure that if any one,
able to distinguish the commoner British birds, will
take a stroll in the country, provided with a small
telescope, or a powerful pair of field-glasses, and will
notice all the cries of birds heard during that single
excursion, especially if he be accompanied by a dog,
he will hear much illustrative of my remarks. It is
advisable that a dog should be his only companion ;
for if a friend be near, conversation will arise, with
the result that the notes of birds will not be heard,
and in any case the birds will be scared away sooner
than if disturbed by only one person. The dog,
running among wayside bushes, will occasion the
utterance of many interesting cries of alarm.

The study of this subject enables us to perceive
with increasing clearness distinctions which are cor-
respondingly subtle : this is a truism which needs
no demonstration ; and it applies with equal force to
the observation of bird-song, or to that of any other
matter. An observer can educate his memory to the
recognition of a multitude of cries, and even of vocal
inflections, which are common to different species.

92 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

It is notorious that animals which have similar
physical features are much more alike in the early
stages of development than when mature ; in short,
that in progressing towards maturity the young tend
to diverge from general types to special types. The
same progressive divergence is indicated in the voices
of most genera of birds. In fact, the cries of the
young of birds physically allied are more alike than
are the cries or the songs of adults of the same
species. The reader who wishes to prove this theory
will be enabled to do so by the following records of
family resemblance, in which danger-cries and call-
notes are the principal features discussed. I shall
therefore not deal with this theory by itself; and
the omission will avoid an extensive repetition of
instances which are mentioned in the following pages.

The similarity between the cries of some few
species unrelated by physical resemblances (such as
the pink^ pink cry of the great titmouse, which, as
Mr. A. Holte Macpherson informs me, is common
with that bird in a part of Scotland — as it is in Kent
and in Gloucestershire — and which is closely like the
pink^ pink of the chaffinch) afford instances of
exception to the almost universal rule that the cries
of birds nearly related physically are more alike than
those of others which cannot be thus associated.

HEREDITY 93

The Corvidce, or crow family, do not present
such obvious vocal resemblances as do some other
races of birds mentioned in subsequent pages. Yet
it may be well to commence this theme with an order
in which a certain broad tone is widely prevalent.

Birds of the crow family, as a rule, have little or
no song ; but some members of the family possess
considerable power of mimicry, though they do not
in a wild state utter sweet tones. The raven may
be placed at the head of the list, as showing in a
feral state the least indication of musical ability ;
and this absence of song is not strange in a bird
which, however imitative, lives in remote and infertile
places. The carrion crow utters the same kind of
cry as the raven, but at a higher pitch, and, like that
bird, is capable of being educated to the pro-
nunciation of words. The crow common in British
Columbia is smaller than Corvus corone, and utters
a similar but less harsh cry. The hooded crow is
said to have a " rather harsh sound resembling the
syllable craa'' (Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p.
532) ; and the authority who records it compares the
cry of the rook {ibid. p. 544) to the syllable khraa ;
hence we may conclude that the two cries are of
much the same intonation. The rook, when greatly
alarmed, utters a low croak ; so does the jackdaw when

94 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

alarmed on account of its young. The jay employs
a high cah^ modulated, on the like occasion. The
blue jay of America {Cyanocitta cristai) is described
by Wilson as being a great mimic, and as uttering
cries like those of our jay, when alarmed. The
chough imitates the human voice well (4th ed.
Yarrell, vol. ii. pp. 15, 16). The nutcracker utters
as an ordinary note crah crah crah^ or cru cric cru ;
and Mr. Warde Fowler has seen it "croaking like a
small raven " {Summer Studies of Birds and Books,
1895). The starling utters as a vehement alarm,
and especially when its young are in danger, a
cry cah, closely like that of the rook and jackdaw,
and both sexes employ it. Young starlings in the
nest utter cries closely like, but less loud than those
of rooks of the same age. The starling has also
a note which seems to relate the species to the
thrushes : I allude to the high, squealing, and almost
toneless notes which, in the breeding season, nearly
always conclude its song -phrases, are sometimes
evidently uttered as a vehement call to the female,
and are very frequently accompanied by a flapping of
the wings. These notes are rarely uttered in the fall
of the year : in the vernal season they are most
persistent. I do not know of this cry being uttered
by any other of the Corvidce ; but the redwing

HEREDITY 95

thrush, when migrating, utters just such a toneless,
though a much shorter squeaHng cry or call-note.
The inferences deducible from this resemblance are
strengthened by a physical analogy between the
starling and the Turdidce, the fact that the young of
the former are brown when first fledged. Some of
them, having retained their nestling-plumage until
maturity, have been held to constitute a distinct
species, the solitary thrush of Montagu, Bewick, and
Knapp (4th ed. Yarrell's British Birds, vol. ii. p. 242).
Not only does one of the Corvidce utter a cry like
one of the Turdidce, but one of the latter appears to
utter a cry resembling the most characteristic tone of
the former. I have heard the mistle-thrush, when
carrying food, apparently to its young, utter a loud
cah, like the cry of the jay.

In dealing with birds of the thrush family, it may
be well to treat first of their alarm-cries and their
call-notes. The loud, rattling alarm-screech of the
mistle-thrush is uttered by its young when able to
fly, as a call to the parents ; it is uttered most often
and most vehemently by the adults during spring,
and is somewhat abbreviated in winter, when it is,
apparently, equally a call and an alarm. In early
spring this cry seems to be sometimes uttered, as
is occasionally the rattling cry of the blackbird, for

96 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

the mere purpose of making a noise — probably to
attract attention. It is heard in a slightly abbrevi-
ated form as an alarm uttered by the common
thrush when the nest or the young are threatened
by a predacious beast or bird ; but, apparently,
upon no other occasion. Mr. Warde Fowler con-
siders that the alarms of blackbird and of ring-ousel
are generically similar, but specifically distinct {in
litt). Mr. Harting says of this species : " When
on the wing, its note has been compared to the
noise made by striking two large stones together"
{Birds of Middlesex^ p. 36). Bechstein wrote that
the bird calls tak like a blackbird {Nat. Hist. Cage
Birds, p. 201). The fieldfare utters a somewhat
similar alarm and call -note, which Mr. Harting
renders tcha- cha-cha {Birds of Middlesex, p. 30).
The blackbird's rattling alarm, more musical than
that of the mistle- thrush, is familiar to all dwellers
in the country. It is much modulated in different
individuals. Layard says of the South African
olivaceous thrush {Turdus olivaceus), when alarmed
and hurrying off, " its voice and manners reminding
an observer of the European blackbird " {Birds of
South Africa, p. 201). The strong family re-
semblance between the rattling alarm-cries of the
mistle -thrush, thrush (when defending its young),

HEREDITY 97

ring-ousel, blackbird, and fieldfare is easily traced.
I heard the cry in question uttered by the American
robin with much of the manner of the blackbird ;
but in the former it is the less prolonged. I have
observed this bird in Ottawa and in British Columbia.
In size and colour the bird is akin to a hen black-
bird. In general habits it resembles that species.
So far, I have never heard an analogous cry uttered
by the redwing ; but then, the common thrush never
utters this cry in winter when the redwing is with
us ; and it is very possible that the latter, when
defending its young, reverts, like so many other
birds, to some cry prevalent in the genus to
which it belongs, and therefore probably of remote
descent.

I would draw attention to the great similarity
between the mode and occasion of deliverance of the
rattling alarm of the blackbird and that of the robin,
the only differences being that the alarm of the robin
is uttered rather less often during flight, is less loud,
and less varied in pitch. The redstart — whose
young, like those of blackbird and of robin, are at
first of a mottled brown hue on the breast — utters
as part of an alarm to its young a sharp snap, sound-
ing like the noise made by striking two small pebbles
against each other ; when the bird is greatly alarmed

7

98 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

it repeats this note many times in succession, and thus
produces a rattle not unHke the rattHng alarm of
the robin. The young robin, when about to be
fed by its parent, frequently repeats its call-squeak,
which is merely an immature utterance of the call-
squeak of the adult ; and when food is being given
to it by the parent, a curious repeated sound, like
the word cah whispered very loudly, is also heard.
When the young redstart is fed these two sounds
are heard, in tones so like to those of the robins,
that I have several times mistaken the identity of
the birds which uttered them. The telescope
enabled me to arrive at a correct conclusion on the
matter. In the adult redstart the sharp click of
alarm is generally preceded by the single utterance
of a short upwardly-slurred whistle, somewhat louder
than, but otherwise like, the alarm and call-note of
the young and adult chiffchaff and the full-grown
and adult willow -warbler. It may be whistled
thus :

The wide range of this cry, which I have heard
uttered by redstarts at Stroud, Dean Forest, New
Forest, Oxford, and other places, and the fact that
it is an alarm- cry, are of value as Hnking the

HEREDITY

99

redstart to the true warblers. Whether or not the
snapping note of the redstart resembles the short
note, tac tac, of the blue-throated warbler {Ruticilla
suecica, Linn.) (Bechstein, Cage Birds, p. 235),
or the "short snapping note of the latter" (ist ed.
Yarrell, vol. i. p. 236), I cannot say; but I know
that the tack alarm of the blackcap is not unlike
the chick alarm of the redstart. Yarrell observed
that when bluethroats are alarmed by any one
approaching their nest, their notes of alarm or anger
resemble those of the nightingale. He also noticed
that the bird very frequently jerks up its tail in the
manner of the robin and nightingale {ibid.). The
tack of the blackcap was wrongly termed by
Bechstein a call-note : it is only so much of a call-
note as an alarm may be.

In all the above instances (except perhaps in
that of the bluethroat) the rattling alarm or the
chick or tack are alarm-cries, and they blend in
small degrees one from the other. The common
spotted flycatcher utters after its young are hatched,
and not often before, a short alarm, chick, which
then often succeeds the ordinary call-squeak of the
bird. This chick is practically the same note as
that of the redstart, and the preceding squeak is
precisely like the call-squeak of the young robin

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

and the call-note of its own young. Sterland wrote
that the whinchat utters as a call-note chat chat chat
{Birds of Sherwood Forest^ p. 69). This cry, which
I know well, is very like the tack of the blackcap,
and is equally an alarm. The same author {pp. cit.
p. 71) gives the call - note of the wheatear as a
chat : a call or an alarm of the stonechat, as I have
often observed, is very similar to that of the
wheatear.

In the call-notes of birds of the thrush family
are many instances of family resemblance. One of
the most familiar of these notes is the long-drawn
plaintive cry uttered by the migrating redwing.
This note, which Sterland seems to have observed,
is most noticeable at night in October and November,
and may be imitated by whispering as loudly as
possible see yon as one word, through which the
sound of the " s " is continued. The blackbird, in
winter and when migrating, occasionally utters a
cry which can only be distinguished by the closest
attention from the cry of the redwing. I cannot
think that this cry (which is a single note never
repeated in quick succession) is, as Mr. Harting
suggests, like the call-note of the fieldfare, which is
rarely uttered except as a succession of short cries
{Birds of Middlesex, p. 33)- I" the common song-

HEREDITY loi

thrush and in the American robin this note seems
to be abbreviated to a shorter and somewhat
harsh chirp ; this, however, in both species, is some-
times prolonged to a much greater resemblance to
the redwing's cry. In July and August young
blackbirds, when disturbed, often utter, as they fly
away, a short squeak or chirp somewhat plaintive in
tone, and exactly resembling, except in its briefer
length, the cry used by the bird when migrating in
late autumn. The young of the American robin,
which, from their colours and manners, would in
England be assuredly mistaken for young blackbirds,
utter, at the same season and age, precisely similar
sounds upon the like occasions. I have never known
a blackbird, when flying high and steadily to the
south-eastward (as do the redwings) over Gloucester-
shire in autumn, and apparently migrating, utter its
alarm-note, such as Herr Gatke records as uttered
by the blackbird when passing at night the light-
house at Heligoland. Probably near the lighthouse
a passing bird would utter its alarm. The note I
have heard from birds migrating has been a cry
closely like, but distinct from, that of the migrating
redwing. I have also heard this variation of the cry
at night. The blackbird sometimes utters it by day
in the same season, when entering a thicket. This

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

note of the redwing is described by Dr. A. G.
Butler d,sphee-ur, the call-note of the North American
bluebird, a distant connection of our thrushes ;
" which note," he writes, " I have also heard uttered
exactly in the same way by the redwing " {in litt.).
Curiously enough, the cry employed by the tree-
pipit when migrating is not unlike that of the
redwing ; in fact, it has just the same tone, but is
shorter and less loud. The same cry in the meadow-
pipit is yet more brief

The blackbird, when suspicious of danger, utters
at intervals of a few seconds a short full note,
sounding like the word quzlp. This is especially the
case in autumn and winter. The note, as I have
stated, is often raised in pitch, and the rapidity and
continuance of its repetition are often increased until
the common rattling alarm of the species is produced.
But the redwing thrush, when suspicious of danger
(at least in winter), utters the quilp as an alarm in
precisely the same manner and tone as the blackbird.
This I have many times observed ; but I have never
heard the redwing make any attempt to repeat the
sound rapidly, or in varied pitch, in the manner of its
near relation, the blackbird. The American robin
has the same note of suspicion. The cries of the
nestling young of both blackbird and thrush are

HEREDITY 103

much alike ; and the young of the former species,
when able to fly, begin to acquire a new character,
namely, the first indication of a rattling cry. The
cries of the nestlings of these species are more like
that of the adult thrush than that of any other
British bird.

The young nightingale, able to fly, utters a cry
exactly like, but less loud than the cry of the
young blackbird of the same age. When the male
blackbird has lost his mate, or his nest has been
destroyed, he utters at intervals a long and plaintive
cry, of very high pitch, which, like the shorter cry
of the migrating redwing, descends in about the
interval of one half-tone. The cry might be whistled
thus :

i

^^

This note is also uttered by the male blackbird
before rain in late autumn, and during prolonged
frost in winter. On each of these occasions the
robin sometimes utters a note which is the exact
counterpart of that of the blackbird, but is much less
loud, and is apparently higher in pitch. Dr. Butler
writes : " A female robin about to leave her nest, in
my garden, uttered the high distress-note, to which

104 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

the male replied, and simultaneously with her leaving
the nest he entered it, and brooded on the eggs " {in
litt.). The American robin uttered a similar but
shorter sound when disturbed by me near its young.
Dr. Butler's captured redwings had the long, high
distress-note of the blackbird (////.). Layard wrote
that the Cape chat- thrush {Cossypha Caffrd)^ the
Cape robin, sings like ours, and has similar
manners {pp. cit. p. 224). The common call-
note of the robin, often heard before the song
on still days in autumn, and also frequently used
when the young are about, is a short squeak, less
loud than the call of the male and female black-
bird to each other, but of much the same tone. In
autumn the young blackbirds of the year often utter
this cry, which is also somewhat like the call of the
common fly-catcher, and almost equally resembles,
but is louder than the common cry of the young
redstart. In fly-catcher and robin, at least, the sound
is accompanied by a flirt of the tail. The nightingale
utters to its young a squeak closely like the call-
squeak of the robin, and I have heard it employed
in conjunction with the alarm-croak of the bird, in
the same circumstances. Bechstein observed that
the European greater nightingale {Philomela major)
has call -notes like those of the common nightingale

HEREDITY 105

(P. hiscinia), as well as a similar song {op. cit. p. 221).
The same authority states that the black redstart's
call -note, fitza^ being very similar to that of the
common nightingale, has given rise to its name of
" wall-nightingale."

The common redstart not only has the alarm-cry,
chick, like that of the common fly-catcher, but this
note, as I have before stated, is usually preceded by
a little whistle in the interval of about a fifth —

slurred upward, and sounding like the word tewy or
cooi. This little whistle was common to all the male
redstarts I have seen for some minutes in June. It
is quite different from all the notes just mentioned,
but is closely like the call-notes and danger-cries of
the young and adult chififchaff, and those of the full-
grown and the adult willow-warbler. The white-
throat utters the same cry, but at a much lower pitch,
as a danger-signal. The nightingale (so far as I have
observed in very many individuals) frequently com-
mences a phrase with this cry, but in a tone much
less loud than the succeeding notes ; in fact, so softly
that sometimes an observer must be not more than a
chain or two distant in order to detect it ; and I

io6 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

have heard it frequently uttered by nightingales
attending to the wants of their young. Other birds,
especially mimics, utter the cry in their songs ; but
the fact that in the nightingale it is addressed to
the young, and in the song has precedence of other
notes, indicates that it is the more natural to this
species. The yellow warbler of North America
{Dendroica cBstiva) exhibits affinity to the willow-
warbler of Britain, not only in size, form, colour, and
habit, but also in voice. The song suggests the idea
that a willow-warbler is commencing his song, but
never attaining more than the first four or five notes.
The song is sometimes prolonged by one or two
notes, and then the resemblance to the willow-warbler
is even more apparent. I have observed many
yellow birds, both in Montreal and in Vancouver.
The female is exactly like the willow-warbler, but
has a faint light streak over the eye. The call-note
of this bird, young or adult, resembles that of the
young willow-warbler.

The fact that alarms addressed by birds to
their young are practically invariable in character,
though varied in vehemence, leads one to conclude
that tewy is employed both as a call and as an
alarm by the nightingale. The alarm-croak of the
nightingale, so frequently uttered when the young

SONGS OF THE THRUSHES 107

are near, is produced in much the same but a softer
tone by the sedge-warbler upon the same occasion.
The lesser whitethroat has a similar low currr, used
as an alarm.

Songs of Birds of the Thrush Family
The thrushes and their near allies are perhaps
the sweetest singers. Their songs may be roughly
divided into two classes, namely, songs in which set
intervals of pitch and sweet tones predominate, and
songs in which imitations of notes of other birds are
the most noticeable. The former are generally the
more melodious. I know of none of their songs
which may be said to consist wholly of repetitions of
call-notes. By set intervals of pitch I mean such
definite intervals as may be readily perceived, but
which are not necessarily found in the diatonic scale,
although all birds — except perhaps the mute swan
— have a vocal range of several tones. The
music of bird - song will be discussed in a later
chapter.

The mistle-thrush habitually repeats one musical
strain many times in successive phrases before pro-
ceeding to another ; and this habit is most often to
be noticed in early spring. The song of the
American robin has the same character ; but whereas

io8

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

the repeated musical phrases of the former bird
generally consist of from three to five notes, those
repeated by the latter are generally of only two, or
sometimes three notes. The following transcripts of
the notes sung by two " robins " {i.e. thrushes) near
my rooms at Vancouver will convey a good idea of
the monotonous character of the performances of this
species. The strains are marked by double bars ;
and each was repeated from six to a dozen times
before the bird attempted a variation. (The pitch is
not material.)

^

-1^ — ^

-^_^-

^B^?^^

m

Though the British blackbird never sings in this
barbarous fashion, it may be sometimes heard to
repeat the same strain several times in succession ;
and this most often occurs in birds still wearing the
infantile flight-feathers, which are shed at the second
moult. (See also page 144, /^j-/.)

The song of the ring- ousel (which, however, I
have only heard on one occasion) appears to be
intermediate between those of the mistle-thrush and

HEREDITY 109

the blackbird, the phrases being less extended than
those of the latter, and of wider range, and containing
more slurs than the song of the former. Both black-
bird and mistle- thrush habitually break from their
full notes into some high shrill squeaks, which end
their phrases. The nightingale follows the same
method, but only in a slight degree. Bechstein
has suggested some of its phrases by these
words :

TiS, tid^ tio, tiOy tio, tioy tio, tix.

Tzn tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzu tzi.

Dzoi^e, dzorre, dzorre^ dzorre^ hi.

In each of these, and other similar examples
stated by this author, the final syllable well
suggests the frequent short concluding note of the
bird. There is not a close resemblance between the
songs of the blackbird and robin ; yet each is a
succession of full tones, and in this respect is like the
full song of the blackcap and some of the strains of
the nightingale. Mr. Herbert C. Playne, who has
heard numbers of garden warblers near Oxford,
informs me that the song of this bird is very like
that of the blackcap.^ The long notes of the
nightingale, by means of which most people dis-

^ See also Harting, Birds of Middlesex, p. 50.

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

tinguish its song, are represented in another bird,
the wood-warbler, which, in the breeding season, cries
a repeated full whistle, kew^ kew, kew, seemingly as
a signal of danger.

The mistle- thrush is an imitative singer, but its
imitations are never uttered with a full voice : they
are only heard after the full notes have been con-
cluded, and they are uttered in a much softer tone,
so that a listener cannot distinguish them unless he
occupies a position fairly near the singer. They are
often very good imitations. The blackbird also is
slightly imitative ; and in him, again, the imitations
are most often (though not always) uttered after the
full tones have ceased, when they form a continuation
of the phrase. It is in the brown thrushes that
mimicry is most evident — in the American mocking-
bird and catbird, for instance, as Wilson has so well
recorded. The common song -thrush is the most
imitative of its tribe in the United Kingdom. It
sometimes sings short phrases composed only of
whistled notes repeated, sometimes several times
successively, in the same intervals of pitch ; but
these short phrases are at once distinguishable from
the much longer and more irregular phrases of the
blackbird, which also are of a fuller tone. The first
songs of the young thrush and the young blackbird

HEREDITY ii:

— heard faintly sung in September, or later — are
much alike, and seem to be aimless repetitions of
whistled tones and slurs. However, traces of mimicry-
are soon observable. Wilson observes {op. cit. vol. i.
p. 234) that the notes of the American ferruginous
thrush {T. rufus) "have considerable resemblance
to those of the song-thrush of Britain." Mr. Hudson
tells us that the whistle of the Argentine blackbird
is sometimes mistaken by Englishmen for that of
the similar home bird {Idle Days in Patagonia, p.
155). Gould observed that the Australian little
shrike-thrush {C oilier icincla parvula), which may be
said to be one of a class intermediate between the
thrushes and the shrikes, has " a fine thrush-like tone,
very clear, loud, and melodious " {Handbook to Birds
of Australia, p. 225). The same authority remarks
{op. cit. p. 279) that the song and call-note of the
Australian scarlet-breasted robin {Petroica multicolor,
Gould) " much resemble those of the European
robin, but are more feeble and uttered with a more
inward tone." He also states {ibid. p. 281) that
" the red-capped robin {P. goodenovii, Gould) has a
peculiarly sweet and plaintive song, very much like
that of the European robin, but weak and not so
continuous." Dr. Saxby heard wheatears which were
excellent mimics {Birds of Shetland, p. 6%). Sweet

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

had a caged whinchat which was equally proficient
(Bechstein, Natural History of Cage Birds ^ p. 243).
I have heard several imitative stonechats. Bechstein
quotes Sweet as giving this bird the same character,
and Yarrell has the like observation (4th ed. vol. i.
p. 281). Mr. Harting remarks that the garden
warbler sometimes commences its song like a black-
bird {Birds of Middlesex, p. 50). The blackcap is
imitative ; but, like the blackbird, it sometimes post-
pones its efforts in this direction to the end of the
phrase. The whitethroat and lesser whitethroat
also are imitative. I have never heard an imitation
uttered by either chiffchaff, willow-warbler, or wood-
warbler.

The Sylviin^, or Warblers

Judging by resemblances of voice, I should place
the chiffchaff and willow -warbler with the white-
throat at the head of this list. I have described
how the nightingale calls its young, and also
commences its phrases, with the utterance of a little
upwardly-slurred whistle, like the alarm and call-
note of the chiffchaff and adult willow-warbler, and
also like the first of the two alarm -cries of the
redstart near its young. The whitethroat has an

WHITE THR OATS 113

alarm which is lower in pitch and harsher, but is
slurred upward in just the same way as that of the
willow-warbler and chiffchaff. It may be faintly
suggested by the word crmi-ee pronounced rapidly
and in this interval :

=e:

Cruu - ee.

The lesser whitethroat resembles the nightingale
(and sedge -warbler alarmed for its young) in the
frequent utterance of a low alarm-croak, something
like the word currr. It also resembles the nightin-
gale in one feature of its song — the production of a
long, full, bubbling note, closely like, but fuller than
the long rattling song of the cirl -bunting. This
song-note I have heard uttered by lesser white-
throats between Oxford and Witney, Aust Cliff and
Gloucester, Andover and Southampton : I therefore
presume that the exclamation is of general occur-
rence where the cirl-bunting also abounds. The
nightingale repeats it more or less frequently. The
redstart seems always to abbreviate it. Mr. Harting
states that the Dartford warbler's song is not unlike
that of the whitethroat {Birds of Middlesex, p. 54).
The songs of the reed -warbler are of much the

same character as those of the sedge-warbler. Mr.

8

1 14 E VOL UTIOX OF BIRDS OXG

Howard Saunders places the species in close
alliance ; and the late Dr. Bree wrote that the call-
note of the marsh-warbler {Sylvia pahistris) is
similar to that of other reed -warblers {Birds of
Europe, vol. ii. p. 7^).

In regard to voice I should place the hedge-
sparrow near the robin, because the call-squeak of
the former is like that of the latter.

It might be well in this place to recapitulate in
a concise way the cries connecting the various
forms already mentioned. In the Conndce the
croak of the raven is changed to a loud corrr in the
crow, caw in the rook, cah in the jay, and a modified
cry uttered as an alarm by the starling. The
jackdaw utters it as a vehement alarm. The
starling's notes of passionate song are high toneless
squeals uttered at the end of the phrase, and often
accompanied by a flapping of the wings. These
notes separate this bird from the crows to which it
is related by its alarm and the cries of its young.
They form a link with the thrushes. The rattling
screech of the mistle-thrush is uttered by its young,
and is modified progressively in the common thrush,
ring-ouzel, fieldfare, American robin, and blackbird,
and seemingly in the South African olivaceous
thrush. The robin's rattled cr\' has points of re-

CRIES FOR FOOD 115

semblance to that of the blackbird. The sound is
not represented in the nightingale, but the single
chick of the redstart and the tack of the blackcap
may be modifications of the same utterance ; and
the latter bird especially, when much alarmed,
repeats its note many times in succession.

The call-note of the migrating redwing is heard,
slightly modified, in the blackbird, and greatly
abbreviated in the common thrush and American
robin. It also seems to have an analogue in the
cries of the migrating tree- and meadow-pipits.

The cries for food of the young blackbird and
young nightingale, when both have left the nest,
are practically the same, differing only in force.
The common short squeak used as a call by black-
birds, especially in autumn, is of much the same
character as the call-squeaks of the robin and
nightingale — cries which can hardly be separated
from the calls of the spotted flycatcher and hedge-
accentor. The young of the American robin have
the same squeak as that of their close ally the
blackbird, which has just been mentioned. The
robin and blackbird have exactly the same cr>' or
wail when the nest has been destroyed, or a mate
lost, though the latter bird utters it much the
louder. In the blackbird this note is repeated in

1 1 6 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

severe weather in autumn and winter. The red-
wing has a single alarm-cry exactly like one
of the blackbird, which is absent in fieldfare, thrush,
and mistle-thrush, but occurs in the American
robin.

The young redstart and young robin have at
one period (just after leaving the nest) the same
cries. In the redstart and nightingale we find a
cry not uttered by blackbird, American robin, mistle-
thrush, thrush, or robin, except as an imitation. It
is the little whistle —

8ve. > ^

i

This is an alarm -cry of redstart, nightingale, chiff-
chaff, and willow-warbler, being especially prominent
in the three last ; and it is uttered in a modified
tone and at a lower pitch as an alarm by the
whitethroat. In the young willow-warbler the cry
is usually heard as a whistle on the first of the two
notes here indicated ; but upon the excitement of
fear the final note is added. The alarm-croak
of the nightingale seems to be slightly modified in
the lesser whitethroat and sedge- warbler.

There are considerable points of resemblance
between the songs of several of the thrushes and
the warblers, which I have discussed, and these

ALLIANCE OF THRUSHES AND WARBLERS 117

resemblances appear to exist among certain foreign
species. Amongst the former imitation reaches its
fullest development in the American mocking-bird
and the common thrush, and amongst the latter as
represented in Britain, in the sedge-warbler (or in
the marsh-warbler).

The wagtails, larks, and pipits seem to me to
be more closely allied by voice to the thrushes and
warblers than are the titmice, which Mr. Howard
Saunders places next to them. Yarrell remarked
truly that the call of Ray's wagtail " is more shrill
than that of the other wagtails " {op, cit. vol. i. p. 382).
The note of the grey wagtail, as he observed,
differs from that of the others. The call or alarm-
squeak of Ray's wagtail is like that of the tree-pipit,
but is more shrill. The calls of the flying young
tree -pipit, meadow -pipit, and pied wagtail are so
much alike as to be almost indistinguishable. The
pipits seem to be allied to the wagtails partly by
flight, call-notes, and the length of their hind-toes.
Yarrell observed that Richard's pipit has habits
like the others, waves its tail like a wagtail, and has
a long hind-claw like a lark {pp. cit. ist ed. vol. i.
P- 399)- The common tree -pipit and meadow-
pipit have somewhat similar voices. Yarrell wrote
of the rock-pipit, that " in its habits, mode of flight,

1 18 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

and song, it so closely resembles the tree-pipit and
the meadow-pipit as for a long time to have been
confounded with them" {pp. cit. vol. i. p. 394).
The water-pipit {Anihas aquaticus) is described by
Bree as singing like the tree-pipit [op. cit. vol. ii.
p. 167). The songs of the tree-pipit and meadow-
pipit, though delivered in much the same manner,
have few tones common to both : the former bird has
much the greater variation, the most frequent phrase
being as follows : — Chee chee cJiee cJiee eechaw eechaw
whee whee whee whee whee whee ; or eechaw eechaw
chee chee chee chee judge judge judge judge whee whee
whee whee, and so on. The meadow-pipit, on the
contrary, rises crying, chilwick chilwick chilwick,
repeated many times, and descends singing, tsee tsee
tsee repeated ; or else it changes the accent from
the first to the second syllable in the first cries,
and ascends with chuwick chuwtck repeated, with
the same ending as before. Bree wrote that the
cry of the tawny pipit {Anthus rufescens) " is very
like that of the short-toed lark " {pp. cit. vol. ii.
p. 177). Mr. Saunders places the larks between
the crows and the swifts ; but they seem more
closely allied to the pipits, both by structure
and habit. The British skylark resembles the
tree-pipit not only in the habit of flying when

LARKS AND PIPITS 119

singing, but also in the final notes of its early spring
songs ; these notes consist of a somewhat plaintive,
prolonged, and repeated whistle, descending in pitch
during its utterance. This note is abandoned by
both skylark and tree-pipit towards the end of the
season of song, and the habit of flight in song
is at the same period less frequently exhibited.
Though this whistle is not the common call-note of
either adult skylark or pipit, it is similar to the
call-note employed by the young skylark, not only
during the period of helplessness, but on through
the first winter. It is a slurred whistle which may
be written thus :

8ve.

ee • uh.

The common call-note of the adult skylark may be
written worry you pronounced very quickly. Wilson,
writing of the American shore-lark, states that in
autumn "they fly high in loose scattered flocks, and
then have a singular cry, almost exactly like the sky-
lark of Great Britain " {pp. cit. vol. i. p. 85). They are
said to mount high and sing on the wing. Yarrell has
the following : — " The song of the cock is lively and
not very loud, and is more generally delivered when
the bird is standing on some elevation than when on
the wing, though at times an observer might fancy he

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

was watching the characteristic flight, if not listening
to the notes, of our own favourite at home" {pp. cit,
vol. iv. p. 509). The Abyssinian larks were said by
Bruce to sing like those of Europe {Dom. Hab.
Birds, p. 300). The South African lark {Mirafra
ncEvid) sings in the air as well as on a tree (Layard,
op, cit. p. 525). The Latakoo lark {M. cheniana)
" somewhat resembles in its habits the English
skylark, rising in the air early in the morning, with
the same fluttering flight, and singing all the time "
{ibid. p. 529). Thus we find American, European,
and African larks agreeing in their manner of
singing.

The buntings {Ember izidce) appear to be allied to
the pipits by their notes, in some species by the pos-
session of a rather long hind-claw, and other features.
The call-note of the young yellow bunting, and that
of the young and the adult cirl-bunting, are not un-
like the call-squeak of the tree-pipit. Yarrell quotes
the late Mr. Proctor of Durham in relation to the
snow-bunting as follows : — " I have often seen him,
when coming from the nest, rise up in the air and
sing sweetly, with wings and tail spread, like a tree-
pipit " {op. cit. 1st ed. vol. i. p. 432). In the cirl-
bunting the call-note of the young is uttered by
adults in the breeding season ; and this bird some-

BUNTINGS 121

what resembles in its plumage the shore-lark. The
buntings are, at any rate, much more allied by voice
to the pipits than are the finches, which are often
placed nearer to them. The song of the cirl-bunting
does not vary in pitch during utterance. In this
respect that of the yellow bunting is sometimes
the same, but in Gloucestershire, and in the adjoining
counties, it generally rises in pitch as the phrase pro-
ceeds ; and as a rule this is followed by one, or two,
shriller notes. An idea of the song has been sug-
gested by the words, A little little bit of bread and no
cheese. Bechstein thought the song of the corn-
bunting shorter and less soft than that of the yellow
bunting {pp. cit, p. 1 1 7). The song of this bird
resembles the noise made by shaking a few small
keys together in the hand, beginning slowly and
ending rapidly. The same writer thought the
warbling of the ortolan had some resemblance to
that of the yellow bunting, but with the last notes
much deeper. Dr. A. G. Butler writes : " The song
of the ortolan bunting is a mere repetition (about five
times) of one note, in a bunting-like song, brief and
unmodulated " {in litt.). Bechstein observed that the
song of the European Emberiza cia. (Linn.) is shorter
and clearer than that of the English yellow bunting
{op. cit. p. 118).

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

Thus we find that several continental buntings sing
like those found in Britain. The same resemblance
may be observed in America. Wilson described the
notes of the Towhe bunting {E. erythropthalmoi) as
something resembling those of the yellow-hammer
of Britain, but mellower and more varied {op. cit.
vol. i. p. 185). The song of the American black-
headed bunting is described as consisting of two notes,
the first repeated twice and the second three times,
chip chip, che che che. In form and manner these
birds very much resemble the yellow-hammer of
England {op. cit. vol. i. p. 5 4). I have often heard reed-
buntings sing songs of this character. As a rule the
songs opened with three notes, cheeo, cheeo, cheeOy
followed by a short rattling repetition of a single cry,
exactly like that in the song of the yellow bunting.
Variations sometimes occurred in the termination.
Mr. Harting states that the call-note of the snow-
bunting is something like that of the linnet {Birds
of Middlesex, p. 75). In The Zoologist for 1874, p.
4177, is a reference to the snow-bunting's tinkling
note, from which it appears that this is used partly
as an alarm and defiance.

Bechstein states that the agreeable song of the
African indigo bird {E. cyaneo) very much resembles
that of the linnet {pp. cit. p. 126). Wilson remarks

BUNTINGS AND FINCHES 123

that the rice-bunting {E, oryzivora), when migrating
in autumn, utters a single chink as it flies {Am. Orn.
vol. i. p. 200). The British reed-bunting, I have
observed, sometimes utters, as at least a part of its
song, fink^ fink, but these notes may be the con-
sequence of imitation, and not of inheritance. These
notes, cJiink ^Xid. fink, remind one of thQ fink of the
chaffinch — a cry closely like the fink of the reed-
bunting. But there is another note which has re-
semblance to the cry of a finch, and that is the common
alarm-note of the adult yellow bunting. It is a short
twitter, generally a double note, something like the
words did it, pronounced as one, and which cry is
sometimes repeated many times when danger is
imminent. Let any one listen to the alarm-cries
uttered by a flock of greenfinches and yellow-hammers,
and he will at once perceive the resemblance between
their alarms : the birds are not found together except
during winter, when they occasionally seek food in
the same spots. It may be said that the great tit-
mouse cries fink exactly like a chaffinch, and that
therefore, according to the line of reasoning adopted
in this chapter, these two species should be placed
somewhat near each other in classification ; but we
must remember that the great tit has a variety of
cries which are often varied in different individuals,

1 24 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

whereas the greenfinch has but two distinct call-
notes, did it and tell tell, and both sexes of the chaf-
finch have not more — the autumnal call, and the
chissick, which the young chaffinches employ towards
their parents, and which the sexes employ towards
each other in spring.

Before tracing family resemblances in the voices
of the great family of the finches, it would be well to
retrace the scale of similarities from the pipits to the
present point. The calls of the wagtails generally
are alike, but Ray's wagtail has a call-note like the
tree-pipit. Richard's pipit also resembles the wag-
tails in the waving of its tail. The pipits are all
fairly alike in the manner of delivering their songs,
and the transition from them to the larks is a very
slight one. The final song-note of the tree -pipit
in spring is closely like the final note of the sky-
lark, and which, in the last species, resembles the
call-note of the young. There are larks in America,
Europe, and Africa which utter similar kinds of songs.
The young cirl-bunting has a call like a pipit. The
snow-bunting sings like a pipit, and the plumage of
this species is somewhat like that of the shore-lark.
Several continental buntings sing like those of
Britain. The rice-bunting of America utters a chink
as it flies ; the snow-bunting has a tinkling note ; and

xYOTES OF THE FINCHES 125

our own reed-bunting utters in its song a cry exactly
like the fink of the chaffinch. The common yellow
bunting utters as an alarm-note a double cry closely
like that of the greenfinch.

Notes of the Finches

The common call-note of the greenfinch, which
may be rendered didit, or tititit^ etc., is very similar
to those of the goldfinch, siskin, and lesser red-
poll, which utter the cry with degrees of repetition
variable in the different species. Even the domestic
canary, a true finch, notwithstanding the effects not
only of artificial selection, but even of the artificial
education of its voice, still utters as a call-note a
twitter (the tone of which is suggested by the words
pretty dick) of very much the same character as
those of the greenfinch, goldfinch, siskin, and part
of the call of the brown linnet. This appears to be
absent from the voices of the house -sparrow and
chaffinch. When the greenfinch, of either sex, is
alarmed by a strange beast, or any bird of prey, in
the neighbourhood of its nest, it utters a very
distinct cry, an upwardly slurred whistle, of the
same character as the tewy of the willow-warbler,
nightingale, and redstart. This cry, in exactly the
same tone, is commonly employed by the lesser red-

126 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

poll. It is curious that upon certain occasions the
common caged canary utters a note similar to this
one of the greenfinch. It is often uttered in the
presence of a stranger. The note of the greenfinch
is sometimes uttered alone, but never in the song.
The loud zshzveeo of the greenfinch has already been
described {ante, p. 36). Dr. A. G. Butler informs
me that the zshweeo of the greenfinch is sung also
by the brambling. The goldfinch utters a similar
but very much shorter sound when attacking
another ; so also does the lesser redpoll, and in
March the latter makes frequent use of the note.
This sound has been alluded to in relation to the
influence of combat {ante, p. 36). When the
female house-sparrow is threatening a male who is
" playing " to her, she produces a low rough note,
of even pitch, which is seemingly produced partly
by a very rapid vibration together of the mandibles.
These birds, and especially the greenfinch, when
taken in the hand, produce a similar sound. The
penultimate syllable (to borrow a term) of the song
of the chaffinch seems to be an abbreviation of
the zshweeo of the greenfinch. It is early acquired
by the chaffinch when recovering or developing
the spring song.

In some country districts the song of the

SONG OF THE CHAFFINCH 127

chaffinch is said to express the prophecy : In another
month will come a wheatear. Dr. Butler informed me
that in Kent the ^'wheatear'' was absent from the
song ; and this I find to be very generally the
case. In Gloucestershire the note is harder in tone.
In Kent it sounds like " tissi-ear."

The short, full, contented -sounding note jink^
which the yellow-hammer often utters from an
elevated perch, may also be an abbreviation of
this sound. The sounds made by the rattling
of the bill during combat are much the same in
the canary and in the house-sparrow. But to return
to the greenfinch.

The greenfinch has one note which is frequently
employed by the house -sparrow. This is a cry
sounding like the word yell, often repeated. It
may be whistled thus :

^ S S

i

the small notes being hardly sounded at all. It is
repeated as a call-note by young greenfinches, at
least for some time after they can fly well ; it is
employed with vehemence by the female greenfinch
while her mate is feeding her near the nest ; and
she then behaves in the manner of a young

1 28 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

one on the like occasion ; and it is a call-note
used by the adults to express greater emotion than
the ordinary call-note of diditit. This is proved by
the readiness with which a flock obeys this cry in
preference to the other, which is, however, generally
sufficient as a call. I have proved even my own
imitations of it (in a strange place) to be more
attractive than the other cry, though this is uttered
by a flock ; but the experiment was conducted in
winter, when the birds were much pressed for food.
The lesser redpoll repeats the cry, yell^ almost
exactly like the greenfinch, and its young also utter
it in the same manner as those of that species.
The young of the brown linnet vociferate this
cry when they are flying in flocks with their parents
about July ; and the young redpoll employs it,
like the young greenfinch, when being fed off
the nest. The same note is heard in the songs
of the brown linnet, siskin, and goldfinch. By the
house-sparrow it is employed in attempts at song ;
also as an alarm, and in the latter capacity with
various degrees of vehemence ; but in this species
it resembles tell or chell^ rather than yell^ and is
sometimes rapidly repeated.

The nestling young of the house-sparrow, brown
linnet, and greenfinch have similar cries, quite

CRIES OF YOUNG BIRDS 129

distinct from the yell of the linnet, greenfinch,
and redpoll, when able to fly. The call of the
young house-sparrow is simply chissick or chirri,
pronounced very briefly — practically the same as
that with which the adult male calls the female,
especially in early spring, when the cry is often
repeated by him scores of times without variation.
I have not heard the female utter the exclama-
tion. The young sparrow makes great use of
this note shortly after leaving the nest, at which
period of life the young of all birds are most
clamorous. The young chaffinch at the same
age utters as a call for food a cry very like that
of the young house-sparrow, but with a degree of
resemblance varying in different individuals : in
some it is so like this cry that it has deceived me,
and I have imagined the exclaimer to belong to
the latter species, before seeing the bird at a short
distance. This cry, in a somewhat abbreviated
character, is uttered by the adult chaffinches as
a love -call. In the fourth edition of Yarrell's
British Birds (vol. ii. p. 89) is a note recording
that the house-sparrow was formerly called " Philip "
sparrow from its note : this cry somewhat resembles
philips but is better rendered as cJiissick. In Mon-
treal I observed that the house -sparrow, which is

9

130 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

there very abundant, had all the cries of its British
allies, and uttered them upon the like occasions.
Bechstein states that the song of the tree -sparrow
(this bird has a close resemblance to the common
species) " is less monotonous than that of the
house - sparrow " {Nat. Hist. Cage Birds, p. 139);
Macgillivray observed that its note " is similar to
that of the house-sparrow, but shriller " {Brit. Birds,
vol. i. p. 352); and the like observation is to be
found in " Yarrell" (4th ed. vol. ii. p. 85). "Its
ordinary call-note is similar to that of the house-
sparrow, but shriller " (Sterland, Birds of Sherwood
Forest, p. 104). The rock -sparrow exhibits a tone
of voice similar to that of the house-sparrow (Bree,
Birds of Europe, vol. iii. p. 123). In South Africa
we should find the same family resemblances,
for Layard records, on the authority of Mr. Ayres,
that the southern grey-headed sparrow {Passer
diffusus) utters a note which " resembles the chissick
of the English sparrow" {Birds of South Africa,
p. 480). Bechstein has also recorded of the banded
finch {Loxia fasciata, Linn.) or Indian sparrow —
found in Africa — that its cry is similar to that
of the common sparrow, and its song is not
very different {Nat. Hist. Cage Birds, p. 3). The
chaffinch is related to the house-sparrow by the

SONGS OF SPARROWS 131

call-note of its young (above mentioned) ; and this
is an important feature, since the distinctive cries
of young birds are generally invariable, and of
universal occurrence in the respective species which
utter them. The chaffinch, however, has another
and a much more prominent note, which, although
not heard in the young (and in this it resembles the
tell tell of the house-sparrow), seems to be never
absent from the adult; this is \h^ pink (ist ed. Yarrell,
Brit. Birds ^ vol. i. p. 462), twink (Knapp, Journal
of a Naturalist^ p. 272), or fijik, which I have
mentioned as an alarm and defiance, uttered by
male and female {ante, p. 43). Dr. A. G. Butler
suggests cJiinck as the most descriptive name for
the note. The cry is not peculiar to the chaffinch :
it is heard in the voice of the goldfinch and in the
song of the brown linnet. Bechstein has recorded
it as occurring in the song of the goldfinch. He
writes of the twite {Linota flavirostris, Linn.), " The
whole of the song somewhat resembling the first
exercises of the chaffi-nch " (Nat. Hist. Cage Birds,
p. 137). Macgillivray also writes that "its note is a
tweet very similar to that of the chaffinch " {British
Birds, vol. i. p. 337). Dr. A. G. Butler informs
me that the song of the brambling resembles that
of the chaffinch without the final " wheatear." There

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

are many other instances of family resemblances
between the notes of finches. Wilson has a note
by Mr. Ord, that the call of the lesser redpoll
exactly resembles that of the common yellow bird
(i^ tristis) of Pennsylvania {American Ornithology^
vol. ii. p. 37). In The Field, number 2020, p.
430, Mr. F. H. H. Guillemard, in ''Notes on the
Ornithology of Cyprus," records that the cries of the
serin finch found in Trooides Camp resemble those
of the European bird, and that the habits of the
two species are similar. Bechstein remarks that the
song of the serin might be mistaken for that of
the canary {op. cit. p. 155); and the same authority
{ibid. p. 1 49) mentions that the goldfinch most easily
imitates the canary, and also pairs with it — as is
now well known. He also observes that the song
of the Lapland finch {F. Laponicd) " is very similar
to the linnet's" {pp. cit. p. 157); and he applies the
same expression towards the song of the Angola
finch {F. Angolensis). Wilson states that the note
of the American pine -finch {F. pinus) "is almost
exactly like that of the goldfinch" {F, tristis)
{American Ornithology, vol. i. p. 276) ; and further,
that the note of its near relation the purple finch
is a single chink like that of the rice -bird {ibid.
p. 119).

VOICES OF FINCHES 133

We will now refer briefly to the subject of the
voices of the finches. The common call of the adult
greenfinch is practically the same as those of the
goldfinch, siskin, and lesser redpoll ; and is heard
slightly modified in the brown linnet and canary.
This cry is not heard in the chaffinch or house-
sparrow. The greenfinch has a rough song- note
heard in a brief form in the song of the chaffinch.
The goldfinch and lesser redpoll have a defiance-note
of the same character, and a like incident is found
in the house-sparrow. The call of the young green-
finch after leaving the nest is heard in the songs of
the brown linnet, siskin, and goldfinch, and is a
vehement call of the adult greenfinch. It is one of
the chief warning-notes, and also a song-note of the
house-sparrow. It is never uttered by the chaffinch.
But the call of the young house-sparrow is reproduced,
sometimes exactly, in the young chaffinch, and is
always a soft love-call in that species. The prominent
note of the chaffinch is fi^ik or tink^ which is also
heard in the voice of the goldfinch and in the song
of the brown linnet. Family resemblance is further
traceable clearly in the voices of some European
and American finches.

A comparison of the notes of raptorial birds
generally reveals the sam.e similarity of voice in

1 34 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

birds physically allied. The titmice, woodpeckers,
and cuckoos, whether of Europe or America, provide
illustrations of the theory already stated. Pigeons
and doves of Europe, America, and Australia respect-
ively have the same habit of cooing. The young of
the common pigeon, turtle-dove, and collared turtle-
dove squeak in much the same tones. The cry of
the chick of the common fowl greatly resembles
those of the young of the partridge and pheasant.
Birds of the same order, in Europe, America, and
Australia, have sometimes similar cries and often
similar manners. The young of the swan and duck
utter whistling cries similar to those of the adult
shelduck.

Enough evidence has now been adduced to show
that frequently, if not in the great majority of
genera, the physical resemblances existing between
birds of a family have their analogues in similarities
of voice in the same species. The instances
mentioned in this connection are merely a small
fraction of those available ; yet so slight has been
the attention paid by observers to this most interest-
ing theme, that probably only a few of my readers
will be able to criticise from personal knowledge
the accuracy of my remarks on the voices of
British species. Enough, however, has been said

SIMILARITIES OF VOICE 135

to demonstrate the family resemblances existing
between the voices of many birds, though the species
inhabit different hemispheres ; and these resemblances
suggest a common descent from general types.

The persistence of certain characteristic cries,
over a wide area, was remarkably evidenced by the
notes of two birds at Vancouver, B.C. One of these
was the black-capped chickadee {Parus atricapillus)^
which is apparently identical with the marsh titmouse.
On my using a " call," some four or five chickadees
came around me, and, within the distance of two
yards, poured out their notes, which were not dis-
tinguishable from the cry of the British bird,
represented on p. 42. The second was a wren,
apparently the " winter wren," in general appearance
exactly like the European bird, and which sang
practically the same song, and in the same manner,
as its British prototype. It also made frequent use
of a note identical with the coarse autumnal call-note
of our wren. Thus, when nearly six thousand miles
from Europe, half of which distance was occupied by
the ocean, one heard what seemed to be the notes of
two common British birds, though the birds of the
two countries must have been, during countless
generations, completely apart.

If the notes of these widely-separated tits and

1 36 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

wrens have been inherited from common ancestors
respectively, the identity of tones just mentioned
indicates the accuracy of the operation of heredity,
or of fiHal mimicry ; but, though we know that many
analogous cries are often inherited, it does not follow
that the persistence of particular tones is wholly due
to the same influence. It is conceivable that the
influence which first occasioned particular modula-
tions has continually operated in their perpetuation.
We hear comparatively so few of the noises which
a bird hears in a feral life, that we cannot tell
whether the sounds it produces resemble those to
which it is most accustomed.

The family resemblances between the notes of
allied birds must be due to heredity or to mimicry.
It is evident that the notes of several species are
perpetuated through many generations solely by
inheritance ; but the wide range of certain tones
aflbrds ground for the view that the persistence of
characteristic cries in widely separate localities may
be due to the influence of some equally persistent
originals, towards which they have been modified by
mimicry. Certain it is that even human ears can
perceive resemblances between certain cries of birds,
and other sounds frequent in the birds' habitats.
This subject will be discussed in relation to imita-

ARCHETYPAL CRIES 137

tion, and it is only mentioned here as suggesting a
possible alternative to the marvellous force of heredity
in the perpetuation of exact tones over vast areas.

This prevalence of tones has, I think, been
demonstrated. It is rational to conclude that such
family cries have been employed during a much
longer period of time than songs, which are varied
locally and individually ; and that the original cries
of the various kinds are recorded in their danger-
cries and call-notes, and that the tones of later-
developed cries, and modes of singing, are indicated
in the first parts of songs, for these have the most
generic characters.

The sounds next in order of prevalence differ
specifically. These are songs.

Each distinct kind of birds may be said to have
its class-tone, which we may consider as archetypal.
In the crow family a simple cah or a croak seems to
be the family cry. The gulls have a short loud
scream, greatly varied. The thrushes, with the
robin, nightingale, hedge-accentor, common titmice,
wren, and many other insectivorous arboreal birds,
utter a very short, and often very soft squeak for a
call-note. The cry of the migrating redwing may be
considered as of the same nature ; and, in this
connection, I should have stated on p. lOi that I

138 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

have several times heard this note uttered in exactly
the tone of the redwing by the mistle - thrush,
apparently as a call between the sexes. These
genera have different kinds of alarm-cries.

The raptorial birds have simple screams or short
cries, sometimes consisting of very rapid repetitions
of an extremely brief sound, which is probably the
foundation -cry. In the duck family the young
produce a peet^ of the same nature as the peet of
young doves, pigeons, pheasant, partridge, fowl, etc.
— cries differing from those of most kinds of birds,
but similar to the whistling notes of some of the
AnatidcB, such as the shelduck when adult. Some
simple form of whistled note may, therefore, have
been the cry of the progenitors of these species ; and
in the same way the redwing's cry, and a simple
chirp or scream, may have been respectively primary
sounds in the thrushes and the falcons.

In the finches, the twitter of the greenfinch and
its harsh song-note may be indicative of early modes
of address. The coo of the stock-dove {Cohimba
cenas\ more simple even than the notes of the
cuckoo, may be considered as a simple and early
tone, whence have diverged the sometimes elaborate
coos of the doves. The song of the ortolan, as
described by Dr. A. G. Butler (p. 121), or that of the

ARCHETYPAL CRIES 139

cirl-bunting {ibid.), may well be deemed the primitive
form of a bunting-song. Likewise, the yell or pean
of the peacock may be a survival of a cry of alarm,
now adopted as a simple expression of defiance.

As already stated (p. 9), I do not, except in
particular instances, refer to captive birds, and there-
fore I have not mentioned such interesting demon-
strations of family resemblance of voice as one
can easily perceive in zoological collections, and
especially in that at Regent's Park, London. There
one can hardly fail to be sensible of the strong family
resemblance between the voices of allied birds, of the
various races exhibited ; and, in regard to those
species which cannot be said to sing, this similarity
is of scientific value, since in those species imitation
seems to have less of that influence by which it so
powerfully affects the notes of captive song-birds.

CHAPTER VIII

VARIATION IN BIRD-VOICES : ITS CAUSES
AND EFFECTS

We may safely lay it down as an axiom that vocal
utterance is always subject to variation. Even in the
newt and the snake such a variation occurs, though
in the former it is an accidental result of altering
degrees of violence in the contortion of the body,
and in the latter it indicates varying intensity of
fear or of hate. There is not much variation in the
cries of the youngest birds ; yet even here it occurs,
and from causes analogous to those observable in
the reptile, for when the suppliant has been satisfied
he ceases to exclaim, and when very hungry he
is most persistent in his cries. The same pheno-
mena produce in him the same results, until he
becomes sufficiently independent to abandon the
use of cries for food, and then he simply calls occa-
sionally for the companionship or aid of his parents.

VJ RIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 1 4 1

There is a degree of variation due to physical
development, such as one observes in the young of
the mute swan and the duck, whose voices change
when maturity approaches, in much the same way
as human voices change, becoming lower in pitch
and altered in tone. During all this period of
development, from helpless infancy to capable
maturity, variations of vehemence, and the extra-
ordinary excitement of certain of the emotions, are
frequently inducing proportionately pronounced
modifications of the voice. Later on occur those
variations which are always traversed before the
first complete songs are produced. In some
instances the latter are, as I have shown (Chapter
v.), mere repetitions of a call - note, displaying
variations in pitch ; but in many species, and
especially in those popularly considered to be the
best singers, songs are developed from exclamations
of much wider range ; in fact, the songs of mature
birds are not usually attained without varied
exercises performed by the young in the course of
developing their voices. While close attention is
necessary to detect variations in the cries of nestling
birds, it is also needed to observe alterations in the
songs of many birds which are generally considered to
repeat their phrases in the same respective characters.

142 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

The yellow bunting, chaffinch, willow -warbler,
and chiffchafif, for instance, would by most people
be considered to sing unvarying songs ; but some
evidence to the contrary will shortly be mentioned.
The most general variations are in relation to the
extent or rapidity with which an exclamation is
uttered ; less general methods occur in intervals
of musical pitch ; still less frequent is the acquire-
ment of a note or tone quite distinct from that of
the ordinary song of a species ; yet even this last is
a fairly wide-spread feature. Variation in the song
of adult birds is not necessarily induced by erotism,
for it occurs in birds which never see a mate ; but
there can be no doubt that the presence of a mate, or
the desire for such presence at the breeding season,
is the great stimulus which causes efforts towards
extravagant song, either in the direction of a pro-
longed or a vehement utterance, or to the production
of unusual cries. I have several times seen starlings
utter their alarm -cries, apparently as a means of
attracting the attention of the female bird ; and
sometimes execute an extraordinary devious flight —
a succession of swoops and rushes, seemingly in-
tended to excite the attention of other starlings,
near which they had been singing. I have twice
observed precisely the same behaviour, and in the

VARIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 1 43

like circumstances, displayed by the male greenfinch.
In all these instances no hawk appeared, nor did the
other birds near betray any sign of fear. Pigeons
often swoop at each other in flight, as though in
play : I am not sure that in these birds the action
is induced by love ; but the same habit in the
kestrel appears to be due to this emotion, when
sometimes in early spring the birds call to each
other, and swoop playfully at each other in the air.
The cushat and the cuckoo also rise and fall in
graceful swoops before others of the opposite sex,
and some birds indulge in a jerky flight while sing-
ing : these have been already mentioned. The
cock ruffles his quill feathers with his foot when
playing up to the hen ; some woodpeckers rattle
their bills in cracks in the bark of trees as a means
of calling their mates. In these modes of expression,
as in song, extravagance would attract the notice
of a bird for which they were adopted ; and the
fact of their wide-spread occurrence proves them to
be thus attractive. Darwin mentions as " instru-
mental music " the rattling of quills by birds-of-
paradise and peacocks, the scraping of wings against
the ground by turkey cocks, the buzzing produced
in a similar way by some kinds of grouse, and
drumming by the North American grouse {Tetrao

144 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

umbellus), which bird strikes his wings rapidly above
his back in order to produce this sound. In view
of the various movements of the wings, which so
generally occur when birds approach their mates, it
is questionable whether the "instrumental music"
produced by these birds is not often an accidental
consequence of an action intended as an overture.
However, the domestic pigeon obviously strikes his
wings together in flight as a call to his fellows.
There is some evidence that bird -songs do not
change in general characteristics except by a very
slow process ; but other facts suggesting the con-
trary conclusion will be subsequently related. Plioy
wrote of the nightingale {Nat. Hist., bk. x. cap. 43 :
ed. Bostock and Riley) : " Its note, how long and
how well sustained ! And then, too, it is the only
bird the notes of which are modulated in accordance
with the strict rules of musical science (?). At one
moment, as it sustains its breath, it will prolong its
note, and then at another will vary it with different
inflections ; then again, it will break into distinct
chirrups, or pour forth an endless series of roulades.
That there may remain no doubt that there is a
certain degree of art in this performance, we may
here remark that every bird has a number of notes
peculiar to itself; for they do not all of them have

VA RIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 1 45

the same, but each certain melodies of its own."
Bechstein noticed differences in the songs of nightin-
gales, as, indeed, would any close observer. He
remarks : " For among these, as among other musi-
cians, there are some great performers and many
middling ones " {op. cit. p. 214); and quotes Daines
Barrington for the statement that some are so
very inferior as not to be worth keeping by the
bird-catchers {op. cit. p. 219). A hundred years ago
White of Selborne saw wood -warblers shivering
with their wings a little, as they do now, when they
made their sibilous, grasshopper- like noise in the
tops of high beech-trees {Nat. Hist. Selborne, p. 36).
It is evident from the number of instances of varia-
tion recorded by ornithologists that it occurs in the
voices of all birds ; nevertheless, the prevalence of
characteristic phrases, betraying but slight trace of
deviation in individuals, indicates that the tendency
to vary is perpetually counteracted by others which
conserve old characters in song. It appears that
the emulation and vehemence of the males are the
chief factors in the originating of variations, and
that their emotions may in this respect chiefly be
counteracted by the selection of female birds ; for
these, possessing limited voices, seem to have pre-
ferred males whose notes did not greatly differ from

10

146 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

those generally prevalent in their respective species.
The following are some instances of variation : — The
hooded crow is said to vary its tone occasionally,
producing two cries — the one hoarse, the other shrill
(ist ed. Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 85). "In the breeding
season it sometimes utters more musical sounds."
Darwin remarks that the voice of the common rook
is known to alter during the breeding season, and
that it " is therefore in some way sexual " {Descent
of Man, p. 375). It is, of course, employed to
express sexual emotion, but is obviously of great
use to the bird long before any such emotion is
perceived.

Knapp observed that " birds of one species sing
in general like each other, but with different degrees
of execution " ; and he recorded a diversity in the
songs of the thrush {Journ. Nat., p. 274). Bechstein
states that no two species have a similar song
{op. cit. p. 2) ; and it is correctly stated that indi-
viduals of one species differ widely in their accidental
acquirements {Dom. Hab. Birds, p. 291). Rennie
observed local variations in bird -song. Thus he
remarked : " We have ourselves, in many instances,
observed what might not inappropriately be called
a different dialect among the same species of song-
birds in different countries, and even in places a few

VAJ?/A TION IN BIRD- VOICES 147

miles distant from each other. This difference is
more readily remarked in the chaffinch, dunnock,
and yellow-hammer than in the more melodious
species {Edin. Mag., 1819). The chaffinches, for
example, in Normandy were observed to vary from
those of Scotland by several notes ; and among the
yellow-hammers of Ireland, England, and Holland
we detected similar differences. We once heard a
dunnock {Accentor modularis) in a garden at Black-
heath sing so many additional notes to his common
song, that we concluded it was of a different species,
till we ascertained by watching the little musician
that it was not otherwise distinguished from its
less accomplished brethren." In January 1889, at
Bournemouth, I heard two dunnocks, not far apart,
which sang the same song — a phrase unlike that
commonly uttered by dunnocks at Stroud, though of
course easily recognised as the song of the same
species. A dunnock at Paganhill, near Stroud,
repeated, on loth February 1892, the following very
curious phrase (presto) :

I

zQi

r

which I could not have recorded had not the bird
persistently uttered it. On 15 th April, at Fro-

148 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

cester, a dunnock had chosen the following unusual
strain for his song :

i

n l^s 15 ^ N— : — 5 -^ y n

Of the chaffinch, Barrington wrote that those of
Essex are the more esteemed by London bird-catchers.
In Italy, as we learn from M. Montbeillard, the
linnets of Abruzzo and of the March of Ancona are
preferred. On this bird, see p. 127, ante.

What seemed an interesting example of pro-
gressive variation in the song of a blackbird occurred
directly under my notice. In 1888 a pair of black-
birds reared their brood in a nest only a few feet
distant from the window of the dining-room at my
residence ; and the young ones must have heard, for
an hour or two every day, the notes of a piano, and
sometimes those of other instruments, played in the
room. Early in 1889 a blackbird in the garden (the
only male, and a bird born in the previous year) sang
little more than the following notes, which he would
repeat dozens of times at short intervals :

The first note was strongly accentuated, and it was

VARIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 149

rather flat in relation to the others, which are fairly
correctly represented in this bar. As spring advanced
the bird acquired a few other notes, always uttered
after the others, but the same phrase was still his
main theme. Next year it constituted about one-
half of the songs of the old blackbird in our garden ;
and in 1891 it was often repeated, also in 1892.
In 1893 I heard the same phrase sung three times
in succession by an old blackbird in the garden.
Blackbirds are with us throughout the year, and
always roost in the same spots, which circum-
stances give occasion for the surmise that the same
singer was with us throughout four years, and
elaborated his notes from one kind of song to many
others.

Bechstein also observed that the song of the
chaffinch varied in different countries {Cage Bij^ds,
p. 35). Prof Newton remarks (in a note on
p. 550 of Yarrell's British Birds, 4th ed.) that
to the best of his belief " the call-notes and songs
of some other species — as the wheatear and the
redstart — differ with the country in which they are
heard." Local variations in the song of the yellow-
hammer have been observed by Mr. W. Ward
Fowler, who wrote : " The yellow-hammers in South
Dorset in 1886 struck me as singing in a different

1 50 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

manner from the Kingham birds, though it would
be impossible to describe the difference. I think I
have noticed the same in the case of the chaffinch "
{A Year zvith the Birds, by an Oxford Tutor, second
edition, p. 173).

A peculiar variation of the song of the starling
has been already noticed (pp. 83, 84).

On 3rd June 1 891, while walking from Chepstow
to Tintern — some five miles distant — I listened to
many chaffinches which were then in full song, and
I stayed for a few minutes near six of them. These
chaffinches sang a longer phrase than the usual run
of those about Stroud, which is twenty miles from
this locality, — the increase being readily detected in
a double occurrence of the common penultimate and
last syllables, which may be readily distinguished.
In the chapter treating of music some variation in
the notes of the chaffinch is recorded.

The varying degrees of excellence in nightingales
has been noticed. Mr. Harting observed that the
strain of the blackcap " is somewhat varied in every
repetition" {Birds of Middlesex, p. 49). Quoting
Mr. J. V. Stewart, he gives the song of the willow-
warbler in Donegal as a succession of ten whistled
notes descending from E to the C below its octave,
in the key of C. This clearly differs from the song

VARIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 1 5 1

heard in Gloucestershire, which is rendered on
p. 52, ante; but often the third, fourth, and fifth
notes are considerably — sometimes a minor third
— higher than the first. He gives the song of the
yellow bunting as —

But in Gloucestershire the first notes ascend succes-
sively, so that the phrase follows nearly this course :

The complete phrase, however, is not usually heard
until spring is advanced. Gilbert White noticed
that some redstarts " have a few more notes than
others" {pp. cit. p. 5 5)- I also have observed this,
and that the phrase is lengthened during May,
being more extended at the end of the month
than at the beginning. The great tit, coal tit, and
marsh tit often vary their songs by the utterance
of some unusual note, which is, for some minutes,
frequently pronounced. Bechstein noticed that the
goldfinch varies in its frequency of uttering the cry
fink in song {Cage Birds, p. 148). In the fourth
edition of Yarrell it is recorded that among linnets

152

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

there are great differences in individuals as singers
(vol. ii. p. 155). Sterland wrote of the starling,
that the woods "resound with their prolonged
whistle, alternating with an oft -repeated gurgling
note" {pp. cit. p. 126); but I have noticed that
this prolonged whistle is heard much less often
in autumn than in spring. I once heard a robin,
apparently in good health, utter a strange cry, squee,
much prolonged, and somewhat resembling the low
currr alarm of the lesser whitethroat, but totally
unlike any note I had heard uttered by a robin.
It was repeated several times at intervals, and
seemed to be intended as a call-note, or as an alarm.
The bird was about ten yards distant. In the follow-
ing year, in autumn, I heard the same cry uttered
twice by a robin in my garden, which was not more
than half a mile from the scene of the former
incident.

Mr. C. F. Archibald, of Rusland Hall, Ulverston,
writes that in the spring of 1889 he heard a bird,
which he was practically sure was a robin, sing an
abnormal song like a tit's tzee tzee cJie cJie che cJie che
die che. (The cry here alluded to is probably the
long phrase of the blue tit.) The bird sang in
the evening continuously, sometimes trying a few
notes of the robin's song, but these were a failure

VA RIA riON IN BIRD- VOICES 1 53

{171 Hit.). I have often noticed that individual
nightingales differ in the frequency with which they
commence their phrases with the little upwardly-
slurred whistle, which is one of their call -notes.
Speaking very generally, but from much observa-
tion, I should say that in Gloucestershire the call
is on an average uttered at the beginning of one in
every four phrases of the nightingale. I have heard
a willow-warbler (on loth June) interrupt his usual
mellow phrase with a sibilous repetition, like the
song of the wood-warbler, but less prolonged.

Early in July, a male house-sparrow, which appar-
ently lived near my bedroom, acquired a new note :
it was seemingly a shout, and resembled the very
rapid upwardly -slurred whistle, sounding like the
word " twit," so frequently uttered in early spring
by the male chaffinch (p. 43, ante). The sparrow
repeated this cry every morning with the greatest
persistence, and his manner of looking about
during the performance indicated some pride in
it. After ten days or so had elapsed he seemed
to tire of the cry, and he gradually abandoned it.
I never heard another house- sparrow utter this
note. A neighbour also called my attention to
the cry, which he thought to proceed from some
uncommon bird. In June 1891 I heard at

1 54 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

Amberley, Glos., a male house -sparrow which had
adopted a set order in the utterance of his call-
notes. For an hour together he would cry at short
intervals — 7>//, tell, chirr i ; tell, tell, chirri ; tell, tell,
chirri, and so on. In May 1892 I heard at
Corbett House, Stroud, a male house-sparrow crying
very frequently chirrirri (or perhaps chississick),
instead of the common call chirri or chissick ; and
he was addressing a female bird, as is usual when
the cry here alluded to is employed. In 1890
Mr. S. S. Buckman informed me that during
the two preceding spring seasons there had been
near his residence at Oxlynch, Stonehouse, Glos.,
a cuckoo which could sing only cuck, instead of the
usual cry of the species. Conversely, in The Field
of 2nd July 1892, it is related that in 1891 a
cuckoo, near the house of a correspondent, sang
every day three notes instead of two ; and the three
were " perfectly distinct and of equal value." The
three notes of this cuckoo and the triple-syllabled
cry of the house-sparrow just mentioned may pos-
sibly indicate a tendency towards the construction
of a phrase by the cuckoo and sparrow. The
cuckoo begins to sing with the interval of a minor
third, then proceeds to a major third, next to a
fourth, then a fifth, after which his voice breaks

VARIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 155

without attaining a minor sixth. For an interesting
quotation on this subject, see Mr. Harting's Ornith-
ology of Shakespeare (1871), p. 150. The musical
terms here employed are, of course, intended merely
to suggest and not to define the intervals sung by
the cuckoo ; and although every one must admit
their general suitability, great deviations from this
regular transition are of common occurrence. The
bird, early in May, very often sings a major
second instead of a minor third ; and sometimes
at this period it utters any interval up to a major
fifth. One bird, heard by me on i8th May, sang
many times a major third, immediately followed by
a major fifth. The song of the mute swan, uttered
in the interval of a minor third, is given in Mr.
Harting's Ornithology of Shakespeare^ p. 202. I
have heard the kingfisher repeat his squeaks in the
same interval, apparently as a song ; this was in
early spring. Rennie made the following observa-
tion on the universality of variation : " Though birds
of the same species very closely resemble each other
in the general tenor of their song, individuals differ
widely, both in the introduction to particular pass-
ages, the result probably of accidental acquirements,
and in skill of execution, as well as in intonation."
Wilson said he was so familiar with the notes of an

156 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

individual wood-thrush that he could recognise him
above his fellows the moment he entered the woods
{pp. at. p. 291).

Variation in song is most noticeable at the end
of the phrase, the first parts of phrases being more
like common types than are the later parts. This is
most observable in birds which do not imitate very
much, nor greatly vary the character of their song ;
such are the nightingale, which so often preludes its
song with one of its call-notes ; the chaffinch, which
particularly varies the two last syllables of its song ;
the greenfinch, which always commences a phrase
with a rapid repetition of its titit call-note ; the
willow -warbler, which follows the same course of
proceeding, and varies its sweet phrase towards the
close. The reed-warbler seems to commence each
phrase in much the same manner, and even the
sedge-warbler often exhibits this method. I think
we may safely say that the songs of all birds which
can be said to sing become extended during the
season of song, though the extension be but slight,
as in the chaffinch, or the variation be merely an
extension of an interval of pitch between certain
notes, as occurs in the cuckoo. The phrases of the
robin, starling, blackbird, thrush, brown wren, lark,
redstart, yellow bunting, blackcap, lesser whitethroat,

VA RIA TION IN BIRD- VOICES 1 57

whitethroat, greenfinch, all become prolonged as the
season of song advances ; though this feature, of
course, is not restricted to the breeding season in all
these species, for the adult robin and starling, at least,
recommence their notes early in August, while the
skylark, wren, and hedge-sparrow sing sometimes in
autumn.

In treating of imitation, I shall have something
to say about local variations and what caused them ;
I will, therefore, not now say more than that the
local variation mentioned by Bechstein and by Mr.
Ward Fowler, as occurring in the yellow-hammer
and the chaffinch, may be clearly traced in some
other species.

It should be remembered that there are variations
in the rate of uttering notes, as well as in their
actual pitch, a feature especially noticeable in the
robin's lit it it alarm. There is often an extra-
ordinary extent of diversity in the utterance of
this alarm, and of the accent accorded to the notes.
I once attempted to record this exclamation, as sung
by a robin, and wrote large dots for loud notes, and
small dots for soft ones, and left spaces to indicate
the amount of time elapsed between them. Each
line represents one utterance of the alarm, and
should be read from left to right.

158

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

• • •
•

The phrase most often runs to a much greater
length, thus :

• % e •

CHAPTER IX

THE INFLUENCE OF IMITATION IN RELATION
TO BIRD-SONG

In the voices of animals, hereditary similarity, in-
voluntary or passive imitation, and voluntary or
active mimicry, blend insensibly from one to the
other. The influence of resemblance is to be
observed throughout the animate world. Mere
physical resemblances to things or to organisms
are of vital importance to vast numbers of creatures
which they continually protect. Whether the
primary causes of these resemblances were fear, and
consequent efforts towards concealment, giving rise
to ocular impressions, which have found physical
expression through the agency of generation ; or
whether their origin may be discovered in the in-
fluence of the protection afforded by similarities of
form and of colour, inducing selection by enemies,
who would see first the most noticeable of their

1 60 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

prey ; or whether animals thus protected exercise
an appreciative choice, or are instinctively impelled
when seeking positions in which their imitativeness
is most effectually protective — are themes foreign to
the subject of this chapter. Nevertheless, we should
remember that the distinction between appreciative
choice and instinctive choice is rather narrow. In-
voluntary imitation, such as that of young birds
learning the notes of their parents, is generally per-
petuated by inherited tendency ; and this, together
with the protection afforded by imitation, no doubt
chiefly perpetuates some of those common features
by which each species of animal is distinguished.
The power of filial mimicry is evidenced by the
behaviour of the house-sparrow, which, though (as
will be seen) endowed with imitative tendencies, has
preserved its language on the American continent.
At Montreal I heard the sparrows employing all
the cries of the British birds (see p. i 30).

Imitation is occasionally exhibited in the voices
of animals other than birds. Several dogs have
been taught to utter sounds which resembled words,
and I have observed a remarkable instance of similar
mimicry in a Dandie Dinmont terrier which belongs
to my brother. When the terrier was about two
years old, a friend stayed with us, who had with

MIMICRY IN A DOG i6i

him a fine female mastiff. The httle dog was some-
what awed by this great beast, which could easily
have made a meal of him ; but he was evidently
very proud when allowed to accompany her for a
ramble in the country. After the mastiff had been
with us for a week or so, the terrier was heard
trying to reproduce her baying, which was, of course,
much lower in pitch than his bark. Several persons
witnessed these attempts at mimicry, and all said
how great efforts they appeared to be. Some days
afterwards I heard the terrier essay the imitation,
which he did very successfully. He raised his head
and uttered a great bark, about an octave lower in
pitch than his usual tone. All his breath was ex-
hausted by the effort, and he immediately coughed,
as though his larynx had been strained. I was
informed that his previous attempts had also had
the same effect. Weeks after the big dog had left,
the little one showed signs of sadness — by lowering
his ears, and in other ways — when her name was
pronounced to him. It is difficult to say how far
down the scale of creation we shall find the lowest
occurrence of voluntary imitation. I used to keep
fish in an aquarium, and I noticed that when one
gaped any other near would be tolerably certain to
gape soon afterwards, though none had gaped

1 62 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

during the preceding half-hour. Fish, again, and
some insects also, are particularly liable to follow
each other ; and here imitation may influence the
choice of direction.

In treating of the influence of heredity, I have
shown that the young of several species of birds
inherit their cries ; and indeed it is probable that,
speaking generally, the cries of birds which have
limited voices are inherited, and that those of what
are commonly called " singing-birds " are perpetuated
through the agency of mimicry. Certain it is that
the call-notes of the fowl, pheasant, turkey, partridge,
duck, goose, and common shelduck are inherited ;
those of the pigeon, cuckoo, crow and his allies,
hawks and their allies, sea-birds, and others of
limited voices, are probably inherited, but may be
transmitted by imitation ; while the cries of some of
the finches and warblers are certainly perpetuated
through the latter agency, and the songs of a large
number of these last certainly are greatly affected
by its influence. The effects of this influence are
wide-spread amongst captive song-birds. Who has
not heard a caged finch, or lark, blackbird, thrush,
or starling which was said to have " caught," as it
reproduced in its song, the notes of one or more
neighbouring birds? Such instances are very

IMITATION 163

common ; and I do not believe that one of our
native song-birds, reared in captivity and isolated
from its species, will ever sing its natural song.
Having, during the last nine years, paid great
attention to the singing of birds, I can generally
detect whether a loud singer, such as a thrush or
blackbird, heard even at a distance, is a caged or a
free bird. A canary, after once acquiring its song,
seems less liable to imitate birds not in its im-
mediate vicinity than is the linnet or the skylark ;
yet many canaries adopt strains from other birds,
independently of the condition of the latter. At
Vancouver many of the canaries had learned the
invariable, short, but full-toned song of a certain
bird abundant in all the vacant spaces in the
city. Sometimes I could not tell which species
was singing. It is to be regretted that many
writers, in recording the imitativeness of birds, do
not state whether they refer to caged or to wild
individuals.

The crows, which are notoriously imitative in
captivity, do not apparently reproduce when wild
the notes of birds not of their respective species,
although they possess the apparatus for singing,
as we have seen (page 70), and although their
powers extend to the reproduction of sweet whistles.

1 64 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

as well as the tones of the human voice. The
necessities of their lives in a feral condition may
prevent them from exercising this power to its full
extent. This idea is supported by the behaviour of
the crows at Vancouver city, B.C., where these birds
are accorded a judicious protection, and may be seen
fearlessly promenading all the open spaces. Professor
Hill-Tout, Principal of Buckland College, Vancouver,
has kindly written for me the following note on these
birds : —

" I would call these birds strong imitators of
sounds in their wild state, and am inclined to think
that they would equal the parrot in captivity if
carefully taught. I have frequently heard them
imitate the barking of a dog, and, less often, the
sounds one hears in a fowl-yard. On one occasion,
when in the country with a friend, I was surprised to
hear, from a bush close by, sounds that strongly
resembled human cries. We were for a time under
the impression that the sounds came from an Indian
camp, and we were much interested to find that they
proceeded from a crow in a tree."

Bechstein mentioned incidentally that the nut-
cracker {N2icifraga caryocatactcs) can imitate the
notes, but not the songs, of other birds {pp. cit. p. 32).
The jay is more imitative : at intervals it will intro-

IMITATION 165

duce into its song " the bleating of a lamb, mewing
of a cat, the note of a kite or buzzard, hooting of an
owl, and even the neighing of a horse. These imita-
tions are so exact, even in a wild state, that we
have frequently been deceived " (Montagu, quoted by
Macgillivray, op. cit. vol. i. p. 5 79). Yarrell and others
also mention its imitativeness, with which, indeed,
we are all familiar. Its near ally, the blue jay of
America, is evidently a great mimic (Wilson, op. cit.
vol. i. p. 27). None should need the citation of an
authority for the statement that the starling is
exceedingly imitative when wild or in a cage (but
see Yarrell op. cit. 4th ed. vol. ii. pp. 229, 230).
The jays are the most arboreal of the order to
which they belong ; and to their residence among
trees may be attributed their frequent and elaborate
use of the voice.

I consider that the mistle-thrush is a moderately
good mimic, although its mimicry is uttered in a
tone much softer than its ordinary full notes, and in
consequence of this, and of the wariness of the bird,
is difficult to hear. The thrush is a capital mimic, re-
producing in its song a multitude of sounds borrowed
from its avian neighbours. For an excellent de-
scription of the mimicry of the mocking-bird, see
Wilson's work (vol. i. pp. 166, 167). The catbird

i66 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

is almost the rival of the mocking-bird {ibid. vol. i.
p. 243). The story of a blackbird imitating the crow-
ing of a cock has often been repeated, and probably
owes its notoriety to the want of observation in
writers who mentioned it ; for this bird readily
reproduces other cries, although they are usually
performed in a faint voice. Rennie has quoted
Kircher's assertion that the young nightingales which
are hatched under other species never sing till they
are instructed by other nightingales {Musitrgia^ cap.
de Lusciniis : Domestic Habits of Birds, p. 277) ; and
he has quoted the Rev. W. Herbert from White's
Selborne (8vo, 1832) as follows: — "The nightingale
is peculiarly apt, in its first year, when confined, to
learn the song of any other bird that it hears. Its
beautiful song is the result of long attention to the
melody of other birds of its species"; and (p. 278)
that the nightingale, when young, " will learn the
notes of other birds, and retain them after it has
heard its own species again." The Hon. Daines
Harrington found the young robin equally imitative.
" I educated a young robin under a very fine nightin-
gale, which, however, began already to be out of song,
and was perfectly mute in less than a fortnight
This robin always sang three parts in four nightin-
gale. I hung this robin nearer to the nightingale

MIMICRY OF WARBLERS 167

than to any other bird ; from which I conceived
that the scholar would imitate the master which
was at the least distance from him. I find it to
be very uncertain what notes the nestling will most
attend to, and often its song is a mixture. ... I
educated a nestling robin under a woodlark-linnet,
and afterwards put him near a skylark-linnet, and
the robin imitated the latter entirely " {Domestic
Habits of Bij^ds, pp. 275, 276). The redstart also
mimics. Yarrell compared it to the blackbird as
an imitator, and he recorded that in a cage it may
be taught to whistle a tune {op, cit. ist ed. vol. i.
p. 238). The blackcap " is said to be an imitator of
the notes of others " {ibid. 4th ed. vol. i. p. 420). I
have frequently observed its mimicry. Gilbert White
noticed that the sedge-warbler imitated other birds ;
and Yarrell observed that it did this in a somewhat
confused and hurried manner {op. cit. vol. i. p. 377).
Of the mimicry of this bird I have much to relate.
The marsh-warbler {Sylvia paliistris') " imitates with
exactitude the notes of the goldfinch, chaffinch,
blackbird, and many others " (Bree, op. cit. p. 74).
Mr. Herbert C. Playne heard remarkable mimicry
displayed by one of these birds near Oxford. Mr.
Playne also informs me that the reed-warbler is an
excellent mimic, he having heard many of them near

i68 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

Oxford. I heard a bird of this species imitate
fluently and accurately the cries of many birds living
in its vicinity. Jesse {Gleanings, p. 172) observed
that the whitethroat imitates the notes of the swallow
and sparrow. I have often observed these imita-
tions, and others less noticeable, performed by the
whitethroat. The skylark is very imitative. Jesse
whistled a tune to one which he had reared from the
nest ; and he heard the bird " inwardly whistle, or, in
the language of bird-fanciers, ' record ' it." Bechstein
wrote that its young in cages readily imitate, but not
generally the old ones {op. cit. p. 178), and that the
Calandra lark can imitate all sounds adapted to its
organs {ibid. p. 185). The common skylark is imita-
tive, both when w^ild and when caged. A whinchat
reared by Sweet from the nest learned songs of the
whitethroat, nightingale, willow-warbler, and mistle-
thrush, which it frequently heard singing in a garden
near (Bechstein, op. cit. p. 243). Sweet wrote that the
stonechat has a strong voice " to imitate the notes of
another" {ibid. p. 244). I have heard the wild stone-
chat mimic very well. Yarrell recorded the imitative-
ness of these two species. The Rev. W. H. Herbert,
above quoted, states that the young wheatear, whin-
chat, and others of the genus Saxicola, which have
little natural variety of song, are no less ready than

MIMICR V OF FINCHES 169

the nightingale, in confinement, to learn from other
species {^Dom. Hab. of Birds, p. 277). I have heard
only one wild greenfinch imitate, and that one
reproduced the fink and tzvit of the chaffinch ; but
in confinement the bird will repeat "the song of
any fellow-captive" (Yarrell, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 106) ;
and Bechstein said that it could be taught to repeat
words {pp. cit. p. 99). Rennie had a young male
greenfinch which, in his opinion, from hearing the
" call " of the sparrows out of doors, had acquired
it perfectly ; and, from hanging near a blackcap
had also learned many of this bird's notes, though
it executed them indifferently, perhaps from de-
ficiency of voice. " Yet notwithstanding that he .
has thus learned part of the notes of three or four
different birds, he can also utter the peculiar call-note
of his own species, though we are pretty certain he
has not heard it since he left his parents' nest, when
only a few days old" {pp. cit. p. 281). Barrington
took a common sparrow from the nest, when it was
fledged, and educated it under a linnet ; the bird, how-
ever, by accident, heard a goldfinch also, and his song
was therefore a mixture of those of the linnet and
goldfinch {pp. cit. p. 275). Mr. A. Holte Macpherson
informs me of a sparrow in the possession of Canon
which was taken when quite young from a

1 70 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

nest in a pump and brought up in a cage with
canaries, and which sings just like a canary, only
better {in litt.). Sterland reared a house-sparrow in
a cage adjoining that of a skylark, whose song the
sparrow learned, and its owner " often admired its
surprising imitation." It would interrupt its song
with the ordinary sparrow call-notes {pp. cit. p. 115)-
Barrington educated nestling linnets under the three
best singing larks — the skylark, woodlark, and titlark
— " every one of which, instead of the linnet's song,
adhered entirely to that of their respective instructors.
When the note of the titlark-linnet was thoroughly
fixed, I hung the bird for a quarter of a year in a
room with two common linnets which were fully in
song. The titlark-linnet, however, did not borrow
any passage from the linnet's song, but adhered stead-
fastly to that of the titlark " {Domestic Habits of
Bii'ds, p. 273). One of his birds learned with equal
ease the song of an African ally. " I therefore
educated a young linnet under a Vengolina {Linola
Angolensis, Brisson), which imitated its African
master so exactly, without any mixture of the linnet's
song, that it was impossible to distinguish the one
from the other. This Vengolina linnet was absolutely
perfect, without uttering a single note by which
it could have been known to be a linnet. In some

MIMICRY OF FINCHES 171

of my other experiments, however, the nestHng
Hnnet retained the call of its own species, or what
the bird-catchers term the linnet's chuckle, from some
resemblance to that word when pronounced. All of
my nestling birds were three weeks old when taken
from the nest, and by that time they frequently
learn their own call-note from the parent birds, which
consists only of a single note. To be certain, there-
fore, that a nestling will not have even the call of its
own species, it should be taken from the nest when
only a day or two old ; because, though nestlings
cannot see till the seventeenth day, yet they can
hear from the instant they are hatched, and probably,
from that circumstance, attend to sounds more than
they do afterwards, especially as the call of the
parents announces the arrival of their food " {ibid.

p. 273).

It is evident that in these remarks Barrington
alluded to singing-birds only, the newly-hatched
young of some other orders of birds being able to see
and run. He saw a linnet which had been taken when
only two or three days old, and which he was assured
had no call-note of any bird whatsoever ; he heard it
almost articulate the words pretty boy, and some other
short sentences. He also heard a goldfinch, which had
been taken at the same early age, and which had no

1 72 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

call of its species, but sang only the song of the
brown wren, which it had heard in the garden in
front of the window where it was hung. I have
heard a caged linnet warble to perfection the songs
of the blackcap and brown wren. This bird was in
a railway signal-box, in the midst of tall trees.
Rennie stated that " the canary-bird, whose song,
in its artificial state in Europe, is a compound of
notes acquired from other birds, is able to learn the
song of the nightingale, but is not able to execute it
with the same power as the nightingale does " {pp.
cit. p. 278). Bechstein recorded that the siskin " imi-
tates tolerably well the song of other birds, such as
those of the tit, chaffinch, and lark" {pp. cit. p. 153).
Yarrell observed that individual bullfinches vary in
their ability to learn. Even so poor a songster as
the hawfinch will imitate when a captive. The
Rev. H. A. Macpherson informs me they will pick
up any sounds {in lilt.). I hear from Mr. Lulham,
a breeder and exhibitor of hybrid finches, that, as
a rule, the songs of these birds are extremely poor :
" they generally adopt a icw notes from any birds
they hear, but, with the exception of goldfinch and
canary mules, their song is not very pleasing" {in
litt.). Mr. W. A. P. Hughes informs me that "a
young bird (finch) reared by hand, and not allowed

MIMICRY OF FINCHES 173

to hear another bird, never learns a perfect song, but
sings a series of disconnected notes, without any
similitude to its parent's song. Young bullfinches
or greenfinches, bred from the &g^ under canaries,
learned the foster-parents' songs, and had none of
the harsh notes of their actual parents ; while young
greenfinches taken from the nest when fledged, and
then reared by hand, always had some of their
respective parents' notes, although learning another
song under a tutor. A goldfinch-canary mule with
a pure goldfinch song, when two years old, learned
the song of a linnet, and sang both songs alternately
and mixed. The time when the young bird really
picks up the song is when in the nest, and before it
can feed itself. I have seen the featherless little
birds singing ; that is, I have seen their throats going,
and heard their squeaky notes, as though they were
practising " (/;/ litt^. In support of these observa-
tions is the fact that the males of some of the finches
{e.g. the greenfinch) feed the females near the nest
during incubation, on which occasions the call-notes
are abundantly employed, and hence attract the
notice of the young, then exposed to the air. The
Rev. H. A. Macpherson informs me that bullfinches
try to pipe as soon as they can perch (/;/ litt^.

The great grey shrike, whose variety of tones has

1 74 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

been mentioned, is said to imitate other birds for
the purpose of attracting them within range of
its attack (Yarrell, 4th ed. vol. i. p. 201). Yarrell
noticed that the red-backed shrike has a note Hke
the house-sparrow. This seems to be an alarm-cry
resembling the word tell^ and pronounced louder
than the tell of the house -sparrow. I have only
heard it used by the shrike in May. Bechstein
recorded the imitativeness of both the woodchat
shrike and the lesser shrike in confinement {pp. cit.).

Mimicry is by no means confined to birds of
the north temperate zone : even in Australia, where
bird-song is not so fluent or melodious as in Europe,
some excellent imitators are found. Dr. Stephenson
stated that the Menura Alberti (Prince Albert's lyre-
bird), a bird about as large as a fowl, imitates with
its powerful musical voice any bird which it may
chance to hear near it ; the note of the " laughing
jackass" it imitates to perfection. Its own whistle is
exceedingly beautiful and varied (Gould's Handbook
to the Birds of Australia, vol. i. p. 308). Mr. A. A.
Leycester had heard one which had taken up its
quarters within 200 yards of a sawyer's premises,
and had " made itself perfect with all the noises of
the sawyer's homestead — the crowing of the cocks,
the cackling of the hens, and the barking and

IMITATION IT:

howling of dogs, and even the painful screeching of
the filing or sharpening of the saw " {ibid. op. cit. vol. i.
p. 310). Gould described the superb lyre-bird {M.
superba) as " sometimes pouring forth his natural
notes, at others mocking those of other birds, and
even the howling of the dingo" {ibid. op. cit. vol. i.
p. 300). These descriptions of the menuras evidently
refer to wild birds. The Tasmanian cow -shrike
" possesses the power of imitating in an extraordinary
degree : it may be taught to whistle tunes as well
as to articulate words" [ibid. op. cit. vol. i. p. 178). Mr.
R. Sterndale, of Whitcombe, Worcester Park, Surrey,
has kindly forwarded to me an extract from a paper
published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural
History Society, vol. i. p. 28, 1886, by Mr. E. H.
Aitken, "On the Mimicry shown by Phyllornis Jer-
doni, the Green Bulbul," which bird he twice heard
imitate many others. He says that on one occasion
the bird, which he had alarmed, " began to abuse
me in several languages." General D. Thomson,
who spent many years with the army in India,
writes that many birds in that country are very
imitative, notably the crow and the minah {in
litt.).

We have here records of the imitativeness of
birds of many different kinds ; and we find that in

176 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

two species at least, goldfinch and linnet, every note
is acquired by imitation, or rather, that none is
inherited. I think we are justified in this general
conclusion from the behaviour of only two or three
individuals, for the cries of young birds are practi-
cally invariable specifically, nor do they vary indi-
vidually except in one or two species ; and we find
also that the house-sparrow, greenfinch, and bullfinch
learn all of their songs by imitation, and inherit
none of them. How different in this respect are
these birds from the rasorial birds, or from ducks,
which, as we have seen, utter the same cries respect-
ively, whether they have been reared artificially or
naturally !

The receptivity of young singing-birds must be
very great ; but we should remember what a stimulus
that faculty receives from the necessities of the
young — their constantly recurring hunger, appeased
by the parent, which often at the moment of feeding
them utters some call or alarm-note ; and their chilli-
ness, removed by the arrival of the brooding mother.
These influences are doubly powerful when the young
are still blind, for then the feeble creatures can only
by the sense of hearing perceive the approach of
their helpers.

The fact that most of the imitative birds above

EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT I'j'j

mentioned utter recognisable imitations when caged
and secluded from their kind does not in any way
prove that their imitativeness is solely caused by
captivity or by modes of life incidental to that
condition ; although, when caged birds imitate, they
generally do so without any encouragement in the
form of desirable food from their owners. It does
not indicate that the dispositions of birds are in any
way altered by the change, except by the presence
of abundant food, and a consequent enforced leisure.
The bird is not thus changed, but its surroundings
are altered, and its song is subjected to fresh
influences, which naturally produce fresh results.
The fact that in most species the songs of wild
individuals are always of much the same characters
respectively {e.g. brown linnet, greenfinch, goldfinch,
bullfinch, blackcap, etc.), and that these birds, when
confined in cages near others, abandon their own
specific songs in favour of parts of songs of these
neighbours, is strong evidence upon one point — the
great value of specific notes to birds which normally
employ them. It indicates the importance of every
class -note in the voice of a bird, whether a call
or a song, in the social economy of bird -life. The
value of such cries must be one of the chief in-
fluences counteracting that imitative tendency which

12

1 78 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

is latent, if not evident, in nearly every bird with
any pretensions to song. Or it may be that the
power of mimicry is exercised by wild birds generally
in an unconscious endeavour to resemble others of
their species — a similarity of voice being an import-
ant aid in the distinguishing of birds of each race,
which more or less frequently seek each other. In
announcing the approach of an enemy, singing for a
mate, or calling to the young, a great variation from
a common type of exclamation would certainly be
injurious in effect, and would therefore be of rare
occurrence. If a man be taken from his native
country, and be placed with foreigners only, will he
not learn and repeat their language ? The bird
does the same. We should not allow our regret-
table ignorance of bird-song to lead us to conclude
that because we understand hardly anything about
it, the birds themselves can perceive no more mean-
ing in it. Their fidelity to their songs when with
their own species, even though dwelling within hear-
ing and being sometimes the companions of other
birds, and the sudden change of voice consequent
upon a total change of surroundings, are facts not
to be lightly passed over ; they indicate that the
language of the wild bird is to it as important as is
the language of a wild man to him.

EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT 179

The detection of the imitations sung by birds in
cages is rendered easy by the circumstance that the
birds almost necessarily reproduce sounds heard
around the cages, and hence familiar to persons in
charge of the captives. Conversely, the imitative-
ness of wild birds would be difficult of detection
by any one not familiar with the subjects imitated,
whether these were cries of birds or sounds caused
by other animals. I shall endeavour in subsequent
pages to show how greatly imitative are many of
our own wild birds, especially the sedge -warbler,
starling, thrush, blackcap, robin, and skylark. Until
extensive experiments have been made, we shall not
be able to determine the extent to which imitation
generally affects the call-notes of the young. We
know that it is responsible for the character-cries of
the goldfinch and brown linnet ; and probably it is
equally powerful in several species allied to them.
However this may be, we are sure that songs are
often completely ordered by this faculty, and if songs
are thus influenced, call -notes also probably are
similarly affected. Our present knowledge merely
shows that the characters of the call-notes are more
permanent than those of the songs, and that they are
more influenced by physical inheritance or by filial
mimicry. The call-notes, from being less variable

1 80 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

than songs, both in individuals and in species, would
seem to have existed for a much longer period, and
to have thus been more liable to the influences of
imitation. Had this always been so, we should find
in the call-notes some traces of imitation ; and the
sounds most likely to have been imitated would
have been those incidental to feeding or to obtain-
ing food. This idea is partly supported by the
behaviour of the common cock, who, when calling
hens to corn, shakes it within his bill, and at the
same time utters a series of sounds not unlike those
produced by the rattling of grain within his bill.
I think the idea is supported by the squealing of the
young of the predacious butcher-bird, by various
sharp tones of berry- or seed-eating finches, and by
some of the sounds uttered by other kinds of birds.
There is evidence that some of the song-notes of
birds have been developed in the way just mentioned
to a semblance of sounds with which the birds are
familiar. And in approaching this subject we must
remember it is in song that birds first betray most
clearly and often their inclination towards mimicry.
Some observations subsequently mentioned in detail
will prove that several species repeat not only their
parents' notes, but also those of other birds around
them. There is no ground for supposing that this

IMITATIONS OF THE EIEMENTS i8l

is any new feature in the economy of birds ; on the
contrary, it has probably existed for a vast period of
time. If it has so existed — and many birds in
captivity will imitate, as we have seen, any prominent
sounds near them — is it not possible that during
a long period many wild birds have unconsciously
learnt to imitate sounds persistent in their neigh-
bourhood, and that these sounds have been, partly
by filial mimicry, partly by involuntary imitation,
gradually reproduced in their songs? If naturalists
in different parts of the world were to make obser-
vations in relation to this matter, I feel sure that
many facts confirmatory of my views would be
established.

Resemblances to Sounds produced by the
Elements

In describing the notes of the American marsh
wren {Certhia palustris)^ Wilson stated that, "Standing
on the reedy borders of the Schuylkill or Delaware
in the month of June, you hear a low, crackling sound
something similar to that produced by air-bubbles
forcing their way through mud or boggy ground
when trod upon ; this is the song of the marsh wren."
The belted kingfisher {Ceryle alcyoii), which lives by
running rivulets, waterfalls, and milldams, when

i82 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

startled from its perch, utters a loud, harsh, and
grating cry, similar to the interrupted creakings of a
watchman's rattle, and almost, as it were, the vocal
counterpart to the watery tumult amidst which it
usually resides (Nuttall's Manual, ed. Chamberlain,
vol. i. p. 462, per Mr. A. H. Macpherson).

Several birds of the duck family have whistling
cries. The shelduck whistles, as I have observed. So
does the wigeon. The summer duck cries peet peet
(Wilson, op. cit. p. 322). The velvet scoter has short
squeaking notes {ibid. p. 218). The whooper has a
whistling cry (Yarrell), and, like the mute swan and
the mallard, the sound of its wings in flight can be
heard at some distance. Birds accustomed to long
flights, and to a life in lonely places, would observe
sounds caused by flight, especially at the times of
migration.

The voices of mallards, pelicans, flamingoes, and
herons resemble the croaking of frogs and toads.

The cry of our common swift has been well
suggested In the words swee ree (Harting, Birds of
Middlesex, p. 128); and this, although used by the
young in the nest and when chasing their parents
for food, is most noticeably employed by the adults
on a particular occasion — when they are pursuing
each other, or are flying at a great pace together.

IMITATIONS OF THE E IE ME NTS 183

and when the swish of their wings can be clearly
heard many yards below them. It is to be noted
that the swift of South Africa " does not pursue and
scream like those of Europe" (Layard, op. cit. p. 50),
and neither swallow nor martin have either habit or
cry. In Canada neither the common swift nor the
chimney swift, which closely resembles the British
species, cries swee ree, nor any sound approaching that
tone ; nor do they pursue each other in the manner
of our swift.

The voices of owls simulate the moaning of the
wind in hollow trees, such as these birds frequent.

Sometimes, when in a wood during a heavy
storm, I have noticed that the patter of drops of
water on fallen leaves was, in rhythm, not unlike
the lit it it cries of the robin. When walking
in the forest-park at Vancouver, B.C., in July, I
seemed suddenly to be close to a noisy trickling
stream, the sound of which was clearly audible
through the dense growth of trees. In a few
seconds the sounds ceased, but were soon repeated
in exactly the same way. I was astonished to find
that the sounds were the song of a little bird,
apparently a wren. In that mountainous district
rushing streams of all sizes are prevalent. It seems
to me that some song-birds, such as the robin, wren,

i84 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

hedge-sparrow, blackbird, and blackcap, which sing
mellow tones and intervals of pitch rather than
imitations of other sounds, may have acquired this
music partly through the influence of the murmurs
and gurgles of rippling streams. Most of us have
observed the musical sounds caused by small jets of
water falling or dripping into water-butts, and some
may have noticed the similarly pleasing sounds
occasionally repeated almost incessantly and without
variation by tiny waterfalls in a streamlet. Having
often observed this " music of streams," as it may be
called, I one day set down in musical notation as
much as possible of the music of a babbling stream.
Of course the intervals written could only be con-
sidered as representing approximately the sounds
produced. Much of this music was far too intricate
and vague to follow, and it was only by close
attention that I could work out the following
examples, which labour was greatly simplified by the
continual repetition of the same strains, as commonly
occurs. The first was very distinct, and ran thus :

There was a great accent on the note which I have
placed first in the bar. Some twenty yards off

MUSIC OF THE STREAMS 185

there was another very musical waterfall, which
rippled this :

Presto.

p

iffrpiri^*:

;ffr-z=S^

PI

C=""==^^

and so on. The lower notes were the fullest toned.
A third had the following :

Presto.

T-r-r— tg=g::g::g— ^=g^r-r~^^=^=p=p

f===r="=B^^&^

There are vast numbers of rivulets always uttering
sweeter and simpler sounds than these ; and through-
out the long year, as through the geological epochs
that have been, this varying but ceaseless music is
continued. Musical ripples are most frequent where
a stream runs under bushes, because in such a spot
twigs and leaves fall into the water, causing little
barriers over which it must mount and tumble on its
way to the sea. Many of the warbling birds, such
as the blackcap, wren, robin, blackbird, thrush, and
willow-warbler, like to build their nests not far from
water, possibly because damp spots generally furnish
the most perpetual supply of insect food ; and in
these situations they are often within hearing of

i86 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

some boisterous, or musical little cataract, whose
persistent notes may fairly be expected to influence
the future songs of nestlings reared in the neighbour-
ing shade. For, in view of the influences which
may affect their song in a cage, can we come to any
conclusion other than that they would be affected
by, and would tend to reproduce distinct musical
murmurs of a brooklet close at hand ? The song of
the British Columbian wren, before mentioned, seems
to prove, almost incontestably, that such an original
has been imitated by that bird.

Resemblances to Sounds produced by
Insects

The sounds made by insects are infinitely less
persistent than the sounds made by streams, and
hence they would be less likely to influence the
notes of imitative birds. Wilson stated that the
American field -sparrow {F. pus ilia) has "no song,
but a kind of chirruping not much different from
the chirruping of a cricket." The bird seems to be
partial to thickets {op. cit. vol. i. p. 266). Gilbert
White observed that the jar of the nightjar re-
sembled the jar of the mole cricket (Miscell. Observ.
in Jesse's Gleanings^ p. 286). The song of the grass-
hopper-warbler is exactly like the persistent song of

IMITATION OF INSECTS 187

the green field cricket {Acrzda viridissiind)^ and
although the insect is not heard much before August,
the young birds must have plenty of opportunities
of noticing this strain. Let any one listen to the
noise made by our common grasshoppers, and
compare the sounds with those uttered as a song by
the yellow and cirl buntings, and he must admit
that in relation to " time " there is much resem-
blance between these sounds, and that the tones
are not wholly dissimilar. In summer the young
buntings must often be in a very din of grass-
hoppers, for they are generally to be seen where
these insects abound, and this is especially the case
along sunny hedgerows. From August until the
middle of October our hedges are populated with
crickets, whose monotonous chirping may be heard
both by day and by night. The common call-note
of the brown wren is uttered with especial frequency
at this season, and it is very closely like this sound,
though much louder. Wrens must then hear this
chirp throughout the day.

Resemblances to Sounds made by
Quadrupeds

The note of the American red-headed woodpecker
{Picus erythrocephalus) is " shrill and lively, and so

1 88 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

much resembles that of a species of tree-frog which
frequents the same tree, that it is sometimes difficult
to distinguish the one from the other " (Wilson, op,
cit. vol. i. p. 148). It has been stated that the voice
of the ostrich is a roar so like that of the lion that
even Hottentots have been sometimes unable to
discriminate between them. The sounds are cer-
tainly somewhat similar. The cry of the ostrich,
like that of the Australian emu, is a deep, hollow,
rumbling sound. Wilson said that the note of
the American burrowing owl {Speotyto cunicularid)
" is strikingly similar to the cry of its companion the
marmot, and sounds like cheh cheh^ pronounced
several times in rapid succession ; and were it not
that the burrowing owls of the West Indies, where
no marmots exist, utter the same sounds, it might
be inferred that the marmot was the unconscious
tutor to the young owl ; this cry is only uttered as
the bird begins its flight" {pp. cit. vol. iii. p. 225).
The South African jackal buzzard {Btiteo jackal)
has a cry " singularly like that of the common
jackal, whence its name" (Layard, op. cit. p. 27).
Verreaux's eagle owl {Bubo lacteus) utters a " call-
note which is often mistaken for that of the leopard "
{op. cit. p. 71). Persons who have not been near cattle
grazing rank grass at night will think it absurd to

IMITATION OF QUADRUPEDS 189

compare the sounds thereby produced with the note
of the landrail, but the comparison is a very fair
one. Cattle, when grazing, protrude the tongue from
each side of the mouth alternately, each time round
a bunch of grass, which is torn off. A pause then
occurs during the act of swallowing, after which the
tearing is resumed. The consequence is a sound
which may be thus expressed, rasp rasp — rasp rasp —
rasp rasp. Cattle graze more at night than in the
daytime, and the landrail is to a great extent
nocturnal ; and although the feeding-grounds of
cattle are not now the nesting-places of the bird, it
is frequently within hearing of grazing, the sound of
which is particularly noticeable at night, and has
been repeated through probably as long a period as
that in which birds of any kind have existed on the
earth.

It may here be mentioned that the common
squirrel and the snake respectively reproduce in
their alarm-cries the sounds made by these animals
during rapid retreat. The former utters a sound
something like the word ivhonk, but more like the
noise produced by swishing with a long twig. The
latter produces a hissing sound ; and wherever it
goes it must always hear the rustling sounds pro-
duced by its transit. When it darts through dry

1 90 E VOL U TION OF BIRD-SONG

grass a regular hiss is thus caused. It appears
that serpents which live among rocks do not hiss
so volubly as those of grassy places.

Resemblances to Sounds uttered by Birds

There are more resemblances between the cries
of birds than between those of birds and other
animals ; and this seems only natural. But here
also we find abundant traces of voluntary mimicry,
so that we can hardly say certainly whether an
individual bird is intentionally reproducing the
notes of another, or is repeating the mimicry of
some ancestor, descended to him by the agency of
filial imitation. It is very possible that birds of
different genera, living together, may learn cries
from each other. The golden-crested wren, for
example, has a call-note which resembles that of
the tree-creeper (as Yarrell observed, op, cit. vol. iv.
p. 470) ; and these two species are often together.
The nuthatch often repeats as a call-note a slight
squeak like that of the creeper and goldcrest, and
also closely like that common to the coal, blue, and
great titmice. In fact, all of these birds, so fre-
quently associated, utter this call. The nuthatch
evidently possesses some power of mimicry, for I

IMITATION OF BIRDS 191

have heard it repeat exactly the phu im imimim of
the blue tit. The hedge-accentor is said to sing some-
what like the wren, as it does, but it is as possible
that this similarity may have been derived from some
persistent source, say, the murmuring of a stream, as
that the one bird copied the other. The adherence
of this bird to local variations in song can only be
accounted for as due to the power of filial mimicry.
The Cape broad - billed fly - catcher {^Platyrhynchus
Capensis) " has a curious harsh, loud, and monotonous
note which almost exactly resembles that of the
owl Scops Capensis^ and is uttered in about the same
intervals, four or five times in a minute" (Layard,
op, cit. p. 344). The influence of surroundings,
in presenting to the notice of birds a restricted
range of subjects for imitation, is indicated in their
songs. Bechstein wrote of the (wild) red-backed
shrike, or butcher-bird {Colhirio), that " it almost
exclusively imitates the birds of its immediate
neighbourhood," and that in the house its song is
composed of the warbling of the birds hung near
(op. cit p. 137). The resemblance of the song of
the scarlet bullfinch {Pyrrhula erythrina) to "some
of the notes of the reed-bunting is a remarkable
fact. Both these birds live in its immediate neigh-
bourhood " (Naumann, quoted in Bree's Birds of

192 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

Europe^ vol. iii. p. 72). Bechstein wrote [op. cit.
p. 254) that the redstart "can improve its song . . .
by adding to it parts of the songs of birds that are
found near it. For instance, those that build under
my roof imitated tolerably the chaffinch that hangs
in a cage at my window ; and a neighbour of mine
has in his garden one that repeats some strains of
a blackcap that has its nest near." He adds : " This
facility in appropriating the song of other birds is
heard in few birds that have their liberty, and seems
peculiar to this species."

This last remark is most inapt. The observers
here mentioned noticed the mimicry of redstarts
in their gardens, presumably because they were
well acquainted with the notes reproduced ; but
Bechstein's remark that few other birds have this
power, indicates that he was better acquainted
with the notes of caged birds than with those of
wild ones. He accurately records that the redstart
adds the notes of other birds, for the imitations of
this species are uttered at the end of the ordinary
strain, to which they form a kind of sotto voce
suffix.

Before going further, it will be as well to make
some observation on the difficulty of perceiving
imitations sung by wild birds. These imitations

IMITATION OF BIRDS 193

can only be detected by a listener who has an
accurate memory for the sounds mimicked, and a
possesser of this faculty will the more easily per-
ceive imperfect imitations in proportion to its
power.

But it is impossible for the listener educated in
these matters to teach his knowledge to other people :
it can only be gained by close personal attention to
the subject, by identifying birds when they exclaim
or sing, and by a sufficient power of memory. If,
therefore, a person who has studied the voices of
birds should claim to have heard certain imitations,
the reader must form his own estimate of the state-
ments, which cannot, except in very rare instances,
be subjected to proof; but when several well-known
authorities have stated (as already quoted) that they
had observed similar incidents, the statements must
be considered as so much the more acceptable.

It should be observed in this place that some
seeming imitations are difficult to relate to one
particular bird, as they are like a cry common to
two or more species. Thus, as has been noticed,
the little upwardly -slurred whistle which is the
alarm-cry of both chiffchaff and willow -warbler,
and is uttered more loudly by the nightingale,
cannot, when imitated, be related to either of these

13

194 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

Species ; for this reason I have adapted a name for
the cry, and have called it " warblers' tewy" An
imitative bird will often mimic two or more cries
of others in one phrase : I have taken no regular
account of this, nor of the number of phrases
betraying no mimicry. The latter are heard in
about the ratio of one to three in phrases of the
thrush and robin, and nearly one in two of those
of the redstart, while there are practically none in
those of the starling and sedge -warbler. The
degree of practice performed — and this is greatly
dependent upon the state of the weather and the
abundance of food — has much influence on the
fluency of song and mimicry : after prolonged and
severe frosts I have heard most feeble and limited
songs, as well from starling as from robin and
thrush.

The Thrush

During fourteen months I listened to an aggre-
gate number, approximately, of 50 thrushes, and
I heard 11 20 phrases ^ which seemingly contained
some recognisable imitation, and 450 in which I
detected none. The six subjects most frequently

^ As already stated, the term "phrase" does not refer to any
particular strain or order of cries. A bird might repeat the same
strain many times, with alternate pauses, and each utterance would
be considered a phrase, and recorded as such.

MI MICE V OF ROBIN

195

mentioned in the record of these imitations are as
follows : —

Bird imitated.

Total instances Thrushes which
of this imitation. imitated it.

Nuthatch 1

136

Zl

Wood-warbler .

133

37

House-sparrow

103

36

Blackbird's alarm .

1^

31

Blue Tit .

57

24

Great Tit

47

24

The Robin

Pursuing the same method of investigation with
the robin, I recorded in the same period 13 16
phrases, sung by a total number of 65 birds, and
905 of the phrases contained one or more imitations.
The following table indicates particulars of these
songs, corresponding to those above stated in
relation to the thrush : —

Bird imitated.

Total
instances.

Robins which
imitated it.

Blackbird's song, or its alarm

132

47

Coal Titmouse

89

44

Hedge-accentor

75

42

Greenfinches' cries .

79

39

Lark (calls or song)

99

36

Blackcap ....

57

23

^ The tables do not record a sufficient number of imitations of notes
of the nuthatch. In early spring I often passed, as not worth notice,
thrushes whose notes then consisted almost entirely of modifications
of the commoner cries of this bird ; and similarly, I have sometimes at
first mistaken a loquacious nuthatch for a thrush.

196

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

The Skylark

During the same period the lark sang some kind
of an imitation 345 times ; the most frequent
subjects mimicked being as follows : —

Bird imitated.

Cirl-bunting, or Yellow Bunting

Swallow .

Tree-pipit

Blackbird's alarm

House-sparrow

Peewit .

Total

Birds which

instances.

imitated it.

53

31

30

20

29

19

21

15

23

14

21

13

The Starling

In the same period I recorded 275 instances of
some imitation being sung by a starling, of which
species only 18 birds were observed. Their six
favourite subjects appeared to be these : —

Bird imitated.

Total
instances.

Starlings which
repeated the cry

House-sparrow

36

14

Greenfinch

22

10

Yellow or Girl Bunting's song

15

10

Partridge

29

9

Green Woodpecker .

16

9

Jackdaw

22

8

INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT

197

The Sedge-warbler

A total number of 281 instances of imitation
given by nine sedge -warblers heard during the
same period revealed their preferences as follows : —

Bird imitated.

Total
instances.

Sedge-warblers
imitating the cry.

House-sparrow

42

9

Chaffinch

24

8

Starling .

20

8

Blackbirds' alarm

19

7

Wagtails' cry .

18

6

Swallow .

21

5

The tables above set out appeared in The
Zoologist for July 1 890. In them the " tree-
pipit " appears as the " meadow -pipit," an error
not due to inaccuracy in identifying the note, but
in identifying the bird. I credited the statements
of others in regard to this matter. The meadow-
pipit is not very frequent near Stroud, but every
year several pairs nest in the vicinity.

All the thrushes, robins, starlings, larks, and
sedge-warblers, whose imitations are mentioned in
the above tables, were heard within ten miles of
Stroud, in which neighbourhood all the birds
imitated abound. The nuthatch frequents the
meadow elms, and is vocal throughout late autumn,

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

winter, and spring ; and during these seasons the
voices of the great and blue titmice are very
noticeable. In gloomy dells about the wooded
hills the coal-tit is very common ; and here young
robins are to be found during summer and early
autumn — at which period, as we know, they are
receiving strong impressions of sounds. The hedge-
accentor and blackcap are very common, especially
in the haunts of the robin. In the open fields we
find buntings numerous, and during summer the
swallow's voice is heard almost as often as theirs ;
while in every sheltered valley, and up the hillsides,
the tree -pipit pours out his music. The peewit
frequents the open fields throughout the year, but
in small numbers. Greenfinches are abundant.
Every evening the partridge's call may be heard
in the fields. The jackdaw is plentiful, and is
often associated with rooks and starlings. The
chaffinch is abundant, as are also the commoner wag-
tails in their seasons.

Thus we find that each of the five imitative
species above mentioned has preferred to reproduce
the cries of birds which are abundant, or whose
voices are especially noticeable, in its neighbourhood.

Song-birds which are imitative are not unnatur-
ally influenced by changes in the more persistent

INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT

199

sounds that are heard around them. The following
table, for which no selection of particular singers
was made, indicates changes induced in the song of
the robin by the songs of birds which are summer
visitors to Great Britain. In this table the word
" chaffinch " denotes all the cries of the chaffinch,
some of which are often uttered in winter. It may
be as well to mention that the wood-warbler, black-
cap, and willow- warbler are all common summer
visitors to the district (Gloucestershire) where the
robins in question were heard.

From Sept. 1887 to ist April

From I St April

1888 to August

1888—

1888—

Number of robins . . 50

Number of robins

. 16

Total of phrases recorded in

Total of phrases

recorded in

this period . . . 890

this period

. 426

Percentage of
Bird imitated. imitations in

Percentage of
imitations in

ilxtent of change,

total of phrases.

total of phrases.

per cent.

Chaffinch . 4

I.I

2.9 decrease

Lark . . 7.9

5.3

2.6 „

Accentor . 6

4.9

I.I

Wood-warbler. 2.9

4.9

2 increase

Blackcap . 3.3

6.3

3

Willow-warbler .6

5.8

5-2

Here we have records of imitations of two winter
and early spring songsters (lark and accentor) and
the common chaffinch, being to some extent sup-
planted by those of newly-arrived warblers. These

200 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

examples are the most pronounced : many of the
cries of common birds are imitated almost equally
throughout the year.

Mimicry of the Thrush

In comparing my records of the songs of the
thrush heard in the first months of the year with
those heard in May and June, a change of song,
similar to that shown in this table, is evident. I
find that in the latter period the blackbird's alarm
is, proportionately with the other imitations, much
less often uttered ; while the reproduced notes of
the cuckoo, wood-warbler, and butcher-bird (or the
note of the wryneck) then become much more
frequent.

I have made a list of the subjects which I have
recorded as sung by all the thrushes (approximately
about 70 in number) heard by me in Gloucestershire.
It is possible that some of these birds may have
been counted twice over, but I exercised the
greatest care to avoid such an accident. The table
shows how many of each kind of imitation were
exact reproductions ; but the number of these
must have been greater than appears, because I
was not so careful as I might have been in regard
to this point, and sometimes forgot to note whether

MIMICRY OF THRUSH

the reproductions were exact. In fact, throughout
the ensuing tables the imitations numbered as exact
must be read as being extremely well performed
by the respective singers ; for some birds, such as
the starling and sedge-warbler, are habitually very
accurate in their mimicry.

Subject imitated.

Thrushes.

Times
imitated.

Exact
reproductions.

Nuthatch .

50

214

5

Blackbird's alarm
Blackbird's song .

44
9

116^

J-5

I

Crow . . . . .

34

107

2

Cuckoo

21

78

4

Coal Tit .

31

64

I

Great Tit .

30

62

House-sparrow (undescribed^

22

5^\

(autumn call) ivheeo .

5

.>

tell tell .

14

chissick . . . .

12

23J

I

Greenfinch yell yell

16

I9^.

titititit .

II

22

(undescribed) .

8

15

-68

upwardly-slurred alarm i

4

9

final song-note

3

3^

Green Woodpecker

24

51

I

Cry of chick

22

53

3

Partridge's call .

17

41

3

Wood-warbler

17

46

6

Butcher-bird

20

33

2

1 This note is an upwardly-slurred whistle, similar to, but more pro-
longed than the alarm called warblers' tewy. I have heard it commonly
uttered by hen greenfinches disturbed by some rapacious bird or beast
near the nest. It is also uttered by the redpoll.

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

Subject imitated.

Thrushes.

Times
imitated.

Exact
reproductions.

Mistle-thrush

17

28

2

Tree-pipit .

16

28

7

Corn-crake .

16

28

I

Nightingale

10

28

...

Starling (whistle)

18

22

...

Sedge- warbler

9

22

I

Wren's call-note .

19

21

...

song

...

I

...

Lark ....

II

21

...

Warblers' tewy .

9

21

...

Chaffinch, song .

4

4^

I

Pzk

9

II V18

loud /w//

I

3.

Yellow or Cirl Bunting's son^

r 8

81

...

Yellow Bunting's single cry

5

...

Whitethroat

II

15

I

Swallow

10

1 2

I

Moorhen .

6

13

4

Wagtail

5

8

...

Blue Tit .

9

10

...

Goldfinch .

8

9

2

There were many other apparent imitations less
frequently heard. The cry called de giit'ck, often
heard in the song of the thrush, and which blends
into imitations of the common call of the nuthatch
and the cry of the guinea-fowl, are not mentioned
in this table. This was sung much more than the
1 1 5 times I have recorded as noted in an aggregate
of 29 thrushes. The reader must not suppose

MIMICRY OF THRUSH 203

that birds can imitate all sounds with equal ease ;
on the contrary, their voices are often quite unsuited
for the mimicry attempted. The cry of the crow
(a common bird near Stroud) affords an example.
I have a note that on 21st March 1890 I heard
many thrushes imitate the crow, at Sans' Wood,
where it abounds. On the 14th March I heard a
thrush in my garden exactly reproduce a cry which
I had heard on the previous night repeatedly and
loudly uttered by some strange bird flying overhead.
I never again heard this note, which was a remark-
able one. In the same month I heard a thrush
imitate the crow of a bantam exactly. Another
exactly reproduced the clucking of a hen for her
chickens. Both birds were close to farm-buildings
where scores of fowls are kept. The clucking of
a hen I have also heard exactly reproduced by
a thrush at Brimscombe ; this was in June. The
following is an example of my records. A
phrase without recognisable mimicry is indicated by
an " O."

" Frocester, Glos., near the church, 1 7th May
1892. — Thrush singing: — golden plover — golden
plover, O — crow — corn-crake — be quick, O, O —
wood-warbler's sibilous notes — cuckoo (in rough
tones), O — young starling's cry after leaving nest, O —

204 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

butcher-bird — be quick, O, O — whitethroats' alarm —
great tit (cry), O, O — end." ^ The cry named after
the " golden plover " occurs elsewhere : I so name
it on the authority of a friend. I have never seen
the bird which utters it, having heard it at night ;
but I know it as well as I know the bark of my
brother's dog — a constant companion. On 8th
July 1 89 1 I heard a thrush at Stratford Park,
Stroud, exactly reproduce the song of a neighbouring
tree-pipit, even to the exact pitch of the notes.

The thrush often reproduces the musical intervals
uttered by one bird, but in the tone of another.
Thus, it will whistle notes in the interval of a
third, like a cuckoo, or it may utter them in a
rough voice like that employed to imitate the
crow. There seems to be no end to the versatility
of the thrush in this particular. Sometimes, also,
it will associate certain imitations and repeat them
several times in the same order. Thus, at Bath,
on 3rd April 1892, a thrush was persistent in
reproducing the hawk-alarm of the house-sparrow
(a sound somewhat like the word tour), immediately
followed by the cry tell of the same bird ; the
result was a prolonged repetition of tour tell, tour

■^ I found a knowledge of phonography very useful for recording
songs, on account of the pace at which a record may by this means
be made.

MIMICRY OF THRUSH 205

tell, etc., the accent being on the second syllable.
I must repeat, that imitation, like variation, is most
in evidence towards the end of the season of song.
In March 1889 I was staying at Weston-super-
Mare, at which place the thrushes abundantly
imitated the dunlin, there a common and noisy
bird throughout the colder months. At that time
the dunlins could be heard all day long uttering
their call -notes. I have a note, that on loth
March a thrush in a garden in front of the house
(Manilla Crescent) had been imitating the dunlin
so much that I thought a flock of the birds must
be in the vicinity, until I watched the thrush
singing within the distance of a few yards. It
rarely uttered the cry of the dunlin without re-
peating it many times, just as it is heard when
a flock of dunlins is near. Here is an extract
from my notes, recording a song by this thrush : —
" Dunlin — dunlin — wood -warbler's plaintive note
(alarm) — dunlin — house-sparrow's chissick — crow —
crow — dunlin — crow — crow — tree-pipit — dunlin —
dunlin — dunlin — dunlin — crow,0 — crow — bequick."
Each of the above subjects represents a phrase.
Out of 37 phrases sung on the same day by a
thrush near Worle, three miles inland, eight con-
tained imitations of the dunlin. In The Zoologist

206

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

for 1867, p. 599, Mr. W. Jeffery, jun., stalest hat
near the sea the song-thrush and skylark vary their
songs occasionally with the ringed plover's whistle
{vide Mr. Harting's note, p. 2og post).

Mimicry of the Robin

I have made an epitome of the principal imita-
tions sung by the robin, similar to that above given
in regard to the thrush. This relates to nearly
seventy robins heard during the last four or five
years in Gloucestershire ; and in this the exact
imitations are set out, in consequence of their
having been so much more noticeable in this
species, which cannot be termed generally a
good mimic.

Subject imitated. Robins.

Blackbird's song or Mistle-

Times Exact

reproduced, reproductions.

thrush's son

? . . 26

43

7

Blackbird's alarm

• 45

105

15

Coal Titmouse

. 55

120

14

Lark .

. 43

113

13

Greenfinch .

. 48

103

6

Hedge-accentor

• 44

76

14

Blackcap .

• 39

72

16

Chaffinch .

. 35

53

8

Great Tit .

. 33

45

4

Thrush

. 28

40

4

Wood- warbler

• 3Z

40

2

MIMICR V OF ROBIN

20*J

Subject imitated.

House-sparrow
Blue Tit .
Swallow
Yellow Bunting
Willow-warbler
Common Bunting
Starling's whistle
Chiffchaff .
Nightingale
Green Woodpecker
Whitethroat
Goldfinch .

Robins.

25

34

19

29

II

28

19

22

8

10

7

9

8

8

6

9

7

8

7

7

7

7

6

6

Times Exact

reproduced, reproductions.

The robin often associates a number of imitations
in one phrase. I once heard six different (and well-
imitated) cries of other species uttered in unbroken
succession by a robin ; but as a rule mimicry is
replaced by the peculiar trickling music character-
istic of this bird. As in other species, there is
considerable variation in the duration of the pauses
occurring between the phrases, the latter being
longest when the best singing is attempted. The
memory of the robin is quite equal to the retention
of an accurate idea of a song six months after it
has been heard ; for, in January, one may often
hear a robin reproduce exactly the song of a black-
cap, that of the willow-warbler, or the coarse final
note of the greenfinch. Yet, even in regard to this

2o8 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

faculty, individuals seem to differ in ability, and I
have a note that, on 2ist March 1890, I listened
during seven minutes to two robins singing in a
thicket where willow -warblers are most abundant,
and I heard only one imitation of this bird's song ;
yet in summer I have heard it frequently mimicked
by robins at the same spot. On 15 th February
1 89 1, I heard at Grove House, Painswick, a robin
reproducing exactly the double alarm-cry, tewy chick,
of the redstart ; and I should have been deceived
had I not known that the redstart rarely utters this
cry except when the young are about, and so been
induced to look for the singer. I saw the robin
singing, but no redstart, nor have I ever seen one
of the latter in winter or before the end of March.

Mimicry of the Skylark

The song of the skylark is equally interesting as
revealing a reproduction of cries of neighbouring
birds. Here is a summary of the principal imita-
tions sung by some thirty larks : —

Subject imitated. Skylarks. ^'^"^^^ _, ^f^^^.

reproduced, reproductions.

Yellow Bunting's song .

Tree-pipit .

Swallow ...

26

66

17

28

18

26

MIMICRY OF SKYLARK

209

Subject imitated.

Skylarks.

Times
reproduced.

Exact
reproductions.

Blackbird's alarm
song .
Martin

14

2

15

21

I

I

House-sparrow
Chaffinch .

14

8

21
21

2

Peewit

1 1

19

3

Green Woodpecker
Wagtails (inclusive)

II

10

I 2
17

Common Bunting (song)

8

14

Hedge-accentor .
Greenfinch .

8
8

I I

8

Sheep's bleat

Magpie

Whitethroat's alarm .

7
6

5

9
7
8

It should be observed that on the hills near
Stroud, where larks abound, the magpie is a common
bird. The "sheep's bleat" above mentioned is difficult
to identify in so musical a voice as that of the sky-
lark ; it is a short but distinct sound, only to be
described in the word baa.

Mr. Harting writes : " I have frequently noted
in Sussex, Essex, and Norfolk, that in marshes near
the coast, where the skylarks have constant oppor-
tunity of hearing the notes of the ringed plover,
they, either consciously or unconsciously, imitate
them so perfectly that I have been momentarily
puzzled to know which species was calling " (/;/ litt?).

14

210 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

(See also The Zoologist, 1867, p. 599.) Near
Weston-super-Mare I heard the larks occasionally
imitating the cry of the dunlin, which bird abounds
there in winter.

While crossing Salisbury Plain, from Salisbury
to Devizes, on 3rd June 1892, I heard scores of
larks in full song. I was on the plain for four
hours,' and the weather being bright, I had abundant
opportunities for making observations. Nearly all
the songs of larks heard there by me were composed
of repetitions of the common call -notes of the
species (which may be suggested by ivorryou and
teeuu\ which were uttered in set orders of repetition
by different individuals. One bird imitated the
house -sparrow's tell tell many times, also the cry
of the wagtail a few times. Another lark imitated
the yellow bunting's song, and then uttered a low
rattle which I could not refer to any bird.

Many of the larks imitated the cry of the pee-
wit ; in fact, their songs consisted almost exclusively
of their own call-notes and cries of the common and
yellow buntings and the peewit. I never heard
one imitation of the robin or blackbird, or of a
titmouse. But as I approached Chippenham, on
the same day, I again heard these familiar imita-
tions ; and one song, heard six miles from Devizes,

MIMICRY OF STARLING

is here transcribed : — Blackbird's alarm — martin's
cry, exactly — yellow bunting's song — chaffinch'sy?;2/i^
fink^ exactly — swallow's song. Every imitation was
a very good one. Mr. Sutton A. Davies, of Win-
chester College, informs me {in litt.) that the larks
in his neighbourhood imitate the common bunting;.

Mimicry of the Starling

The following is a similar summary of the prin-
cipal songs of starlings heard near Stroud : —

Subject imitated.

Starlings.

Times
reproduced.

Exact
reproductions

House-sparrow .

21

67

5

Jackdaw

14

37

Greenfinch .

14

28

Green Woodpecker

14

23

I

Blackbird's alarm

13

20

I

Partridge .

II

20

Chaffinch .

10

20

Nightjar

10

19

Swallow

10

16

I

Yellow Bunting's song .

8

13

„ „ call .

8

II

Blackbird or Mistle-thrush'

ssong 8

13

I

Thrush (alarm) .

II

...

Peewit

8

Dog's bark .

5

7

Nuthatch .

7

Migrating Redwing's cry

7

...

Robin (alarm)

5

8

...

Blue Tit .

5

6

...

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

It is practically unnecessary to distinguish the
varying degrees of accuracy in the imitations of the
starling, for this bird is one of the best mimics, and
its reproductions of the notes of other birds, and
even of animals, are as exact as they are various. I
often hear a starling imitate the call-note of the
tawny owl, which bird is common in this neighbour-
hood. The starling can imitate another bird and at
the same time utter quite different sounds : it is diffi-
cult to imagine how he accomplishes this feat, but
the fact remains patent to close observation. The
sounds which I have named as imitations of the
nightjar are made with the mandibles, which appar-
ently are rattled for this purpose. A starling which
imitated the cries of a hen is recorded by Mr. L.
Buttress, of Grove Rectory, Retford [The Field, No.
2054, p. 666). On 2nd March 1892, at Stratford
Park, Stroud, three starlings imitated exactly a
peculiar swurrr — often uttered by some water-fowl
about the pond in the park.

Mr. A. H. Macpherson has kindly sent me the
following note: — "In 1887, at Trinity College,
Oxford, I heard a starling on the roof at the opposite
side of the Quadrangle attempting to imitate the
chapel bell, which was then ringing. To my sur-
prise I noticed that, in addition to imitating the

MIMIC R V OF STARLING 2 1 3

sound, it was swaying its whole body from side to
side in imitation of the movement of the bell."

The late Mr. J. E. Anderson of Lilswood,
Hexham, wrote to me as follows : " I have several
times gone to the door to let in a cat — it was only
a starling practising mewing ! They are very fond
of imitating the curlews, and do it well as far as
they go.^ One of them was bothered the other
night in attempting to imitate the call of the par-
tridge : he failed miserably. There are two colonies
of starlings here. One bird claims the chimney —
that is the one that imitates the curlews, cats, and
birds of notes dissimilar to his own. Another
claims some trees close to where he builds : his
imitations are confined to blackbirds, and a few
notes from the lark, mixed up in a very hearty
manner with his own song. Sometimes he is quite
jubilant ; and, did he not change from ' blackbird '
to ' starling,' I could not distinguish him from a
blackbird. He hears the blackbirds in the adjoin-
ing plantation."

The starlings near Stroud can generally imitate

1 Mr. Harting informs me that when staying on a visit at Vagnol
Park, Bangor, close to the Menai Straits, where curlews are often seen,
and come into the park to rest at high tide, he was much struck with a
starling which used to sing every morning near the house, and give an
admirable imitation of the curlew's note.

214

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

the partridge with facility ; I have, however, often
seen them evidently exerting themselves in pro-
ducing the cry of another bird ; one in particular
seemed compelled to completely extend his wings
when imitating the cry of the peewit.

Mimicry of the Sedge-warbler

I have made records of the songs of about
fourteen sedge -warblers heard near Stroud. The
following were the principal imitations : —

Subject imitated.

House-sparrow's chissick

tell tell .
Brown Wren's call

„ song
Starling
Warblers' tewy
Swallow
Wagtails
Chaffinch Jink
„ twit
Blue Tit .
Butcher-bird
Martin
Corn-crake .

Sedge- Times Exact

warblers, reproduced, reproductions.

II

9
8

2
II

9
8
8
6
6
7
7

>

3

34.

36I

23
19
39

21

2(

9-
15
12

15

15

9J

29

The imitations sung by the sedge -warbler are
generally remarkable for correctness ; but some of

MIMIC R V OF SED GE- WARBLER 2 1 5

them are yet superior to the others, and of such I
have noticed not a few. This bird generally
strings together many imitations in one phrase, the
song being usually commenced with the ordinary
notes, jig jig, and afterwards varied in mimicry.
The sedge-warbler (like the lark, robin, and thrush)
repeats these imitations with varying degrees of
rapidity, and in a repeated order of succession, so
that it may be said to construct its own strains out
of the songs of other birds. On 4th June 1892,
near Crudwell, Glos., I heard a sedge-warbler utter-
ing one of these original phrases again and again.
It began slowly, jig jig, followed by an exact re-
production of the chissick of the house -sparrow.
Thus the strain ran, jig jig chissick, and so on ;
only the pace was greatly increased as the phrase
proceeded ; and this was concluded with ordinary
imitations. It also sang jig jink, the second note
being exactly that of the chaffinch ; and in this case
also the repetition was accelerated as it progressed.
In precisely the same manner, the bird repeated the
tell tell of the house-sparrow with the ji?ik jink of the
chaffinch, and the common alarm-cry [clittit) of the
swallow with t^Q jig jig of the sedge-warbler. This
individual is mentioned as especially exemplifying
a habit general in the species. At Lower Doring-

2 1 6 E VOL UTION OF BIRD-SONG

ton Terrace, Stroud, a caged lark has been kept
for many years, and the bird has learned the calls
of canaries which are kept by a neighbour, also the
call of the brown wren, some notes of the great tit,
tree-pipit, and yellow bunting, which notes it repeats
in an almost incessant song. I have heard a sedge-
warbler in a marsh, about 120 yards distant from,
but within easy hearing of the lark, singing phrases
closely like those of that bird.

The most remarkable song of the sedge-warbler
noted by me was uttered at ten o'clock at night,
near Chalford. A bird of this species was singing on
the other side of a roadside wall, and some few feet
down a bank. As I looked over the wall the song
ceased ; and I waited, watching the bush whence
the sounds had proceeded. Suddenly I heard the
cry of a chaffinch — the call employed in flight — so
loud, and yet so rapidly diminishing in force as the
cry was repeated, that I felt certain a chaffinch had
been startled from the bush — an unusual occurrence
under the circumstances — and, more strange still,
had uttered its call-note as it flew far out over the
valley. I prepared to make a note of this, and
actually took out my note -book for the purpose.
Suddenly I heard precisely the same cries — the loud
call fading away — as though a second finch were

MIMIC R Y OF SEDGE- WA RBLER 2 1 7

Still calling, though retreating far across the valley.
Then I knew that the sedge-bird had deceived me.
I then heard it exactly reproduce the twitter of a
canary, which, at that time, was hung on a house
about fifty yards away ; and then it uttered the
most wonderful song I ever heard. It sang a
long phrase consisting wholly of alarm-cries, such
as one hears when a hawk comes over a numerous
population of small birds. The vehement double
cries of swallows, the loud cah cah cah of the
starling, the cry toiirr of the house-sparrow, and its
tell tell, with the alarm of the blue tit, were jumbled
together as they sometimes are in nature ; and
then the sedge-warbler continued his phrase in the
single cries of tell in which the old male house-
sparrow, watching as a sentinel, warns his neighbour-
hood that a hawk is very near. All other cries
were abandoned when this signal was reproduced ;
and, with lengthening pauses between these notes,
the phrase gradually came to a conclusion. The
succeeding phrase was of the ordinary kind. On
the following day I went to the spot, and saw the
singer, a sedge-warbler, in the same bush.

2l8

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

Mimicry of the Redstart

The following is a summary of the principal
songs of five redstarts heard near Stroud, in April
and May 1888 : —

Subject imitated.

]

Redstarts.

iotai
instances

Brown Wren's song ..... 2

10

„ „ call

2

2

Willow-warbler

3

5

Whitethroat

3

4

Tree-pipit

2

7

Blackbird's alarm

2

5

Chiffchaff

2

5

Thrush .

2

5

Nuthatch

2

4

Coal Titmouse .

2

4

Chaffinch

2

4

Nightingale

2

4

House-sparrow .

2

3

Greenfinch

3

4

Sedge-warbler .

2

3

Swallow .

2

2

Mimicry of the Nightingale

In stating that the nightingale had only twenty-
four strains, Bechstein recorded his own lack of ob-
servation. We can no more define the limits of its
song than those of the voice of a thrush or redstart.
I remember one which sang so like a whitethroat that

MIMICRY OF NIGHTINGAIE 219

a clerk in my employ, who knew but little about
birds, noticed the resemblance and mentioned it to
me. One I heard exactly repeat the cricket -like
chirrups which the chiffchaff so often utters immedi-
ately after its own typical cry. One repeated the
chissick of the house-sparrow fourteen times without
a break. As I have before remarked, there is indi-
vidually much variation in the frequency with which
one of the call-notes (an upwardly-slurred whistle)
is repeated at the commencement of a phrase.
Several reproduced the " water-bubble " song of the
nuthatch exactly ; and another, the green woodpecker's
cry, three times in twenty-eight phrases. I tried to
take down the song of one of them, in the method
adopted by Bechstein. Here is a part of the record :
— Quee^ qiiee^ quee . . . Tsorr tsorr . . . Peeuu
peeuu . . . Tso, rrrrrr he. Rrrrrrr se. Whit
rrrrrr. Tsu tsu tsii. . . . Woodwarbler, exactly.
House-sparrow's chissick. Tezvy. Pee pee . . . ke,
Tewy, and blackbird's alarm. Highlo highlo . . .
klo klo klo, etc. I have several times heard one
repeat a phrase which has just been sung by another.
The fulness of tone which the nightingale displays
interferes with accuracy of imitation in many
instances ; and indeed, so wonderful is the song,
that a listener is apt to forget all else than the

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

supreme impulse and passion of the singer. Perhaps
the surroundings of the bird increase this effect.
The murmur of a stream ; the soft moonlight which
sometimes bathes the dewy meadows, and sheds
white waves across the road or the woodland track,
chequered with shadows of clustering fresh May-
leaves — these are suitable features in the realm of
this monarch of song, and increase his effects. Now
he prolongs his repetitions till the wood rings.
Now his note seems as soft as a kiss ; now it is
a loud shout, perchance a threat irrrrrr) ; now a
soft peemi, peeuu^ swelled in an amazing crescendo.
Now he imitates the sip sip sip sisisisisi of the wood-
warbler, now the bubbling notes of the nuthatch.
The scientific investigator is abashed by this tem-
pestuous song, this wild melody, the triumph-song
of Nature herself, piercing beyond the ear, right to
the heart of the listener. He is pleading now ! But
no, he is declamatory ; now weird, now fierce ;
triumphant ; half-merry : one seems to hear him
chuckle, mock, and defy in almost the same breath.

Mimicry of the Marsh-warbler

In The Zoologist for August 1892 is a graphic
account of the mimicry displayed by this bird,

MIMICRY OF REED-WARBLER 221

by Mr. W. Warde Fowler. He heard one at
Meiringen, in the Oberland, Switzerland, which,
" besides the notes of birds, distinctly appeared to
me to take pleasure in imitating the sharpening of
a scythe, a sound frequently to be heard from an
adjoining field." Another deluded Mr. Warde
Fowler into the belief that a chaffinch was singing
in the same bush, and " once I fully believed I heard
the nuthatch's clear metallic note. He also mimicked
the skylark, the great tit, the white wagtail, the tree-
pipit, and the call of the redstart." Mr. Herbert C.
Playne (who subsequently watched marsh -warblers
with Mr. Warde Fowler in an osier-bed in Oxford-
shire) described this species to me as greatly excel-
ling the sedge-warbler or the reed-warbler in mimicry.
He states that the bird sings each imitation separately,
as though thinking a moment before every effort, and
that each of its attempts in this particular is wonder-
fully successful.

Mimicry of the Reed-warbler

A reed-warbler heard by me at Brimscombe, near
Stroud, imitated many times the cries of the starling,
including the common cry of alarm (the cah employed
as an alarm to the young), and the song of the

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

starling. A pair of the latter species had a nest
within ten yards of the singer ; hence I was able to
compare the imitations (which were excellent) with
their originals. The swallow, wagtail, and house-
sparrow were also abundantly imitated. The swallow's
song was capitally rendered seven times successively.
Mr. H. C. Playne informs me that he has heard
numbers of these birds near Oxford, and that they
are good mimics.

Mimicry of the Wheatear

This bird is not generally considered a good
mimic, but the late Dr. H. L. Saxby held the
opposite opinion. He wrote : " Upon very many
occasions I have heard the wheatear successfully
imitating the notes of the following birds : — House-
sparrow, skylark (part of song), common bunting,
mountain linnet, peewit, golden plover, ringed plover,
redshank, oyster - catcher, and herring - gull. So
complete is the deception, that when the bird has
been out of sight I have many times been thoroughly
taken in " {Birds of Shetland, p. G'^).

Mimicry of the Golden-crested Wren

The song of this diminutive bird generally consists
of repetitions of a shrill squeak, accelerated towards

MIMICRY OF REED- BUNTING 223

the close ; but sometimes this strain is supplemented
with variations, and even with imitations. On
26th February 1890, I approached to within three
feet of a goldcrest singing in a closely-cut hedge.
Sometimes it uttered the notes of the coal titmouse,
in other phrases those of the blue titmouse, and
short squeaks like those of these tits, also \hQ fink of
the chaffinch. On the 23rd of March following I
heard a goldcrest reproduce exactly the pirn ini
imimim of the blue tit, and it also sang a note of
the coal tit.

Mimicry of the Whitethroats

Both the whitethroat and lesser whitethroat often
mimic a little, but their imitations are not very
numerous nor distinct.

Mimicry of the Nuthatch

As already stated, I have heard the nuthatch
repeat exactly a characteristic note of the blue tit.

Mimicry of the Reed-bunting

I have heard reed-buntings reproduce the tell of
the house-sparrow or the greenfinch, and the fink of
the chaffinch, also another cry of the brown linnet
and greenfinch.

224 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

Mimicry of the Stonechat

This bird also mimics, but not so well as many-
other birds. Its song is weak, and its phrases are
not longer than those of the redstart. I have heard
it many times reproduce nearly the whole of the
song of the yellow bunting, also the song of the
common bunting, and part of that of the chaffinch.
I have only heard a very few of these birds sing.

Mimicry of the Blackbird

The blackbird is about as good a mimic as the
blackcap. An observer must be fairly close to either
of these birds in order to make out its imitations ;
for these, in either species, are rarely uttered in the
full tones of the ordinary songs. The blackbird has
been known to crow like a cock, and flap his wings
at the same time. I have heard a blackbird at
Tortworth, Glos., imitate repeatedly the cry which
I am informed is that of the golden plover. I have
also heard these birds reproduce cries of the green-
finch, blackcap, wood - warbler, nuthatch, peewit,
swallow, great tit, green woodpecker, goldfinch, and
magpie. Mr. F. A. Chambers, of The Elms, Stroud,
informs me that when staying with friends at a

MIMICRY OF CHAFFINCH 225

distance, he was informed that a blackbird in the
garden had learned the two first bars of the then
very popular song " Two lovely black eyes." Mr.
Chambers afterwards saw and heard the bird sing
these notes so incessantly as to be wearisome.

Mimicry of the Chaffinch

I once heard the greenfinch, but never the
house -sparrow, imitate another bird ; but I have
more than once heard the chaffinch imitate the
greenfinch. In 1892, a chaffinch which had its
nest in the garden at Brookside, Chalford, exactly
reproduced the song of a greenfinch which re-
peatedly flew around the spot, singing its ordinary
flight - song (in which the final note zshweo is
not uttered) ; and the chaffinch would sing its
own ordinary phrase and then that of its neigh-
bour and relation, with equal facility. I have
sometimes heard a chaffinch sing only a small part
of the song of the greenfinch. In May 1890, at
Dursley, I walked close up to a male chaffinch which
had quite deceived me with its utterance of the
common call -note of the pied wagtail. The bird
seemed to employ this cry for somewhat of the
purpose of a call-note, uttering it at intervals, and
sometimes interrupting the repetition by a few utter-

15

226 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

ances of its ordinary fink. Early in the spring of
1892, I heard at Stroud a chaffinch which uttered
this cry of the wagtail with the accuracy of the
Dursley bird. It is possible that this cry was a
modification of the soft chissick, which is a love-call
of the chaffinch.

Mimicry in other Birds

I have heard slight indications of mimicry in the
linnet. There are, of course, many birds other than
those already recorded which imitate when wild, but
the above instances may to some extent indicate
the influence which mimicry must exercise in the
development of birds' songs. It would seem that
cries of one species may be gradually adopted into
the songs of other species ; indeed, the above lists of
imitated subjects reveal this as at least a temporary
occurrence. To the effects of this agency may be
attributed some of the similarities observable in
certain cries of diverse species. The long, full,
" water-bubble " phrase of the nightingale has always
seemed to me to be closely like the " water-bubble "
notes which form one of the most noticeable spring-
songs of the nuthatch. Many lesser whitethroats
(but not by any means all of them) utter a similar
long roll of very rapid, full -toned repetitions of a

MIMICRY IN OTHER BIRDS 227

short note ; and the redstart also generally utters
towards the commencement of its phrase a much
shorter but otherwise somewhat similar repetition.
I should not consider this full, loud phrase of the
nuthatch as of imitative origin, for the old bird
utters to its young and also to its nesting- mate
a cry of precisely similar construction, but almost
toneless ; this is as it were a whispered repetition
of the full bubbling song, of which it is probably the
original. I believe that young nuthatches, when
crying for food to a near parent, utter this toneless
repetition.

It is probable that many curious notes uttered by
our imitative songsters are survivals of imitations of
the cries of species no longer common, and that some
others have been acquired from foreign birds. The
latter feature would especially occur in the songs of
the sedge-warbler and other imitative summer visitors
to Britain.

The reader will have perceived that my sug-
gestion that birds' notes, whether cries or songs, have
been modulated to resemble sounds with which birds
are familiar, is a very rational one. Analogous
similarities of form and colour are found in many
other animals and insects ; and the claim that
such features are developments from other types is

228 EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

admitted by most naturalists. But no individual
bird has ever been known to radically change its
colours, even under the influence of the most com-
plete change in its surroundings ; yet, as we have
seen, many song-birds exhibit such a change in their
songs to an extent patent to all who have paid
attention to the subject. Is it strange, then, that a
woodpecker should have a cry exactly like the note
of its neighbour a tree-frog (see p. i88), whose cries
may be a survival of the complainings of the permian
epoch ? ^ Is it wonderful that in autumn the brown
wren should particularly affect a little chirp (not the
love-call-note) like the chirp of its companion at that
season, a cricket, whose note may have first been
produced by an orthopterous ancestor in the coal
period ? Can we wonder that the young of the
imitative butcher-bird, when out of the nest, should
squeal like a tortured frog or bird, when we know
that the parents slay frogs and birds in the vicinity
of the young ? It is but natural that the blackbird,
which in winter so often hears the curious toneless
bubbling sounds audible when one holds a cracked
snail close to the ear, should terminate its song with

^ I shall never forget the loud shrilly noise made by some so-called
" tree-frogs " at Ceres, Cape Colony. In March 1885 they produced,
every night, quite a din, rendering conversation under the trees a matter
of some effort.

MIMICRY IN OTHER BIRDS 229

similar high toneless noises. Similarly, there is
nothing extraordinary in a resemblance between the
noise one hears when pulling a large earthworm from
its hole (the ear being near the ground) and certain
low-pitched "whirry" noises often uttered by the
starling towards the commencement of a song.

All evident imitations furnish proof of the influ-
ence of surroundings in regard to the evolution of
bird - voices. When we remember that probably
through long ages this principle has been ceaselessly
operating, and that its effects have not necessarily
been lost in each generation, but probably have been
perpetuated through the agency of filial imitation,
we need not wonder that the cries of birds (imitative
or unimitative) are so often somewhat similar to the
sounds which the birds themselves experience daily,
either in relation to obtaining food and to feeding
or to the other incidents of their lives. On the
contrary, it may be justly surmised that nearly the
whole range of bird-song may have been affected by
the imitative faculty, which we know to have so
wide-spread an influence in the animal world ; and
that the voice of the bird has been thus attuned to
harmony with neighbouring sounds, just as its colours
so often blend with those of its surroundings.

CHAPTER X

THE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG

It is obvious that many birds of limited voice
repeat in their cries various intervals of musical
pitch. The cuckoo, cock, chiffchaff, and great tit
afford familiar examples of this feature, which is
traceable in many songs much more extended than
those of these birds, namely, in those of the
chaffinch, greenfinch, hedge-accentor, willow-warbler,
blackbird, blackcap, brown wren, and others. It is
easy to record the intervals expressed in limited
cries, though, of course, with only approximate
accuracy, for the birds have no knowledge of our
scale of music. But when birds sing such long
phrases as those uttered by the robin, blackbird,
and blackcap in June, it is difficult to make one
individual record ; and impossible — such is the
variety of these songs — to make any true general
record, as characteristic of the species ; though this

THE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG 231

has often been attempted, especially in popular
journals, by contributors who seemed to imagine that
when they had taken down one or two phrases of
one, or perhaps of two, individuals, they had obtained
a full transcript of the song of a species. I trust
that the variety of the music which I have written
down (though but fragmentary) may suggest the
falsity of such limitations.

Although possessed of a musical ear, which from
childhood had been exercised in various musical
pursuits, I was at first greatly puzzled in attempts
to follow the intricacies of bird -music, which are
often executed so rapidly as to be not only diffi-
cult to follow, but sometimes actually impossible
to record in their natural order. My method of
noting the music of birds was as follows : — I
did not attempt to write all the music of a rapid
singer, but listened for some phrase sufficiently
simple for my purpose, and then carefully wrote
it down. By this method, slow though it was,
I was enabled to obtain records which, although
not perhaps scientifically accurate, were as true as
musical notation would allow. Many of the phrases
of both the thrush and blackbird came wonderfully
near, indeed, many seemed identical with, the in-
tervals of our scale. Such an incident does not

232 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

appear surprising when we consider the imitative
powers of the best singers, and the frequency of
human music in their haunts. The field -labourer
whistles ; from villages issue louder, though not
always sweeter, musical sounds ; throughout the
year music is heard in country towns. It appears also
that our musical scale is of remote origin, and that
for thousands of years the intervals which we now
employ have been wafted from musical instruments
used by men to the ears of listening birds. On
3rd December 1890, according to the Daily News
of the following day, Mr. T. L. Southgate delivered
to the students of the Royal Academy of Music an
address on ancient Egyptian musical instruments,
and especially in relation to some flutes 3000
years old, then recently taken from a tomb at
Kahun. Mr. Southgate, "admittedly one of the
greatest of living authorities upon the subject of
ancient musical instruments," proved in his address
how abundantly music was employed by the ancient
Egyptians. Two of the flutes were in a sufficient
state of preservation to be played. " Performed
upon by Mr. J. Finn, they gave practically the
exact notes of our diatonic scale, thus proving —
in every sense of the term to actual demonstration
— that our scale was known to the Egyptians many

TFIE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG 233

centuries before the Greeks, from whom it had
erroneously been supposed we borrowed it."

Mr. Hughes informs me that a parrot in his
possession learned to whistle the four notes of the
common chord :

and that a starling on the house picked up the
strain and sang it with exactly the accent of the
parrot, which was often placed out of doors. That
birds should repeat a particular phrase in the same
successive intervals of pitch is no more strange than
that people should do the same thing. Hawkers
and railway men are particularly liable to exhibit
this tendency. Mutual aid, though so often advan-
tageously employed by birds for the detection of
danger, is never otherwise exercised, except in
domestic incidents ; consequently, birds' cries are
largely restricted to the purposes of call- notes and
danger-cries, and do not require the elaboration
necessary in more highly developed social con-
ditions.

In making my records I have paid no attention
to actual pitch — I believe that this has no scientific
value — but all the purpose of my records is to suggest
intervals between notes sung by birds. In every

234

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

instance the notation is probably from one to two
octaves lower than the actual notes it represents.

In September 1890 I heard a cock utter an
unusual crow :

In the following September, at a different place, I
heard another uttering this cheerful strain :

In the city of Vancouver a rooster uttered his
clear, long crow in three notes, as follows :

There was sometimes a slight falling in pitch at the
close of the long final note.

At Sidcup, in November 1895, a fowl habitually
drawled the following :

i

i*

:J^J^

A cock-crow is usually of this character :

.^^.

^=^

THE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG

235

Here are two strains from the limited repertoire
of the coal titmouse (heard in April) :

^ ^ ^

This is a strain which I have heard sung from
time to time by the great titmouse :

-fe-. J-. J--. &_. t

The " G's " in this were rather flat. I did not think
it worth while to record many times the intervals
sung by the chaffinch. Its song usually runs thus :

But on 26th May 1892, I heard at Brunswick
Square, Gloucester, a chaffinch singing most unusual
intervals ; these :

This phrase was repeated many times.

The music of the robin (I mean in its original
whistled notes) is sung so rapidly that it is very
difficult to follow. The following are three of the
most simple and distinct phrases which I have
recorded as sung by this bird :

236

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

Of the musical intervals in alarm-cries I have
recorded none but a few varieties of the blackbird's
alarm. The following are three " alarms " which
were heard at places about a mile apart :

J^

^

The music of the hedge -accentor, like that of
the robin, is rapid and difficult to follow. The
three strains next recorded give a general idea of
the song :

T^^

-->-

:*!=

m

N — ^— S-

-^^

-J^' 1!!^— t

3^=^-

m^

u g

m

The blackcap is another rapid singer. The first

THE MUSIC OF BIRD-SONG

237

six strains of the following were sung by blackcaps
at Stroud ; the rest at Leigh Woods, Clifton :

"c:ur'

i

:^iJ:

lacf?:

gag^gS

i

-g m-

-W=Xi

:S-—

Tn>-,— t

N ^ N

i^i

-y-'-gzgi

The notes of the mistle- thrush are easily re-
corded, because the bird is so feeble in originating,
that it often reproduces the same strain, almost
without variation, during several successive minutes.
The following was sung by one in Cirencester Park
on 2 I St May 1889 :

^ rr i I I LJ Lj

At a spot a mile from Stroud, on 17th February
1889, another mistle-thrush sang:

N N N

—Uz

-ii=\^

Two others of this species had the following phrases
respectively :

238

EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

i

w-

ililB

The American robin, which in form closely re-
sembles the female blackbird, and which I have
heard on many occasions, is even a poorer singer
than the mistle-thrush, for its strains usually contain
only two distinct notes, repeated many times in
succession. The following are seven of its strains,
heard in or near Vancouver :

I have always been much struck with the correct-
ness of the time-accent observable in the music of
blackbirds, thrushes, and skylarks. I have en-
deavoured to reproduce this, where possible, in the
Appendix, by dividing the strains or songs of differ-
ent individuals by means of bars. The songs were
heard between March and August 1888, and the
earlier records in relation to each species appear
first. Many of them were repeated several times in
succession. Double bars are placed between each
strain. The music should be played (or whistled)
in quicker time than that indicated in the stave.

CONCLUSION

In the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to
make some advance in the study of a highly interest-
ing subject, which has not hitherto received any
systematic treatment from ornithologists. Science
has devoted attention too exclusively to the physical
features of animals, and has neglected the study of
their habits. Yet aberrant habit may be termed
the parent of physical development. It suggests
the future, as structure recalls the past. It also
indicates thought and originality of purpose. In
this country we may be said to live in the midst
of birds ; but, although the geographical distri-
bution of these airy beings has been carefully
recorded in all parts of the United Kingdom, their
manners and various cries have hardly been noticed.
Yet, of all pursuits in the realm of natural science,
the study of these subjects may be considered the
easiest to follow. The student needs only to be

240 E VOL UTION OF BIRD- SONG

Still and silent, and to look and listen to the wild-
birds, which, as soon as they lose their fear, will
impart to him some knowledge of their family-
secrets. He requires neither gun nor bag for
carrying homeward any slain or captives : a field-
glass, and a piece of waterproof cloth to sit upon,
are all his equipment. The fields, trees, and hedges
amongst which he moves will supply abundant
incidents for investigation, and will amuse him with
many a pretty scene from the infinite drama of
nature. The reader who will take advantage of the
opportunities thus afforded for observation will, I
feel sure, arrive at the conviction that the evidence
here adduced has been correctly stated, and that
my conclusions are thereby justified.

APPENDIX

Music of the Blackbird

N.B. — Large manbers distinguish the singers, double bars the strains.

:^pa=5^gj^=^^=gg

8

^m^^^^^^^

'^

\ — \.

ii?ii^

■J^—t^-^-N-Jl-j!

-^—J^L-

10

(Alarm.)

11

I I

Pg^^l^

i6

242

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

12

Ni N IS 1^

=5=?=!?=i:

:l5=qsii

-^_&.

13

i^te^^

^

j^=i5

a

16

W— I— u

B

I

:S==il:

i-M:4?3^

17

N ! 18

1^=*:

-^_

iil

3=te^

5=1:

*=Jt

21

^I^i3^!

T--r^:

i«r=S

^

r5="= — u

22

i^

l^ii^^=i^

i

^j

^^i^^?^^3^iiiii

23

a3fe&=*=^4:

j?=fa=:^=S=d5=S-4is^=fcs

:S==S=t^^=S;=:S;

APPENDIX

243

^E^g^

^ I ^ > > !

i^^l^i^

^:i=ifc

I r^ I

-&^=^-J-4v

i4

:^=?^

^

24

it:zgn-zz:i-:i*zz!^ =j

^^E^

^-^'^

N , N

1^^^^^^^^^

)L^

^gj

CJ ^^^^^^U^"^^^^^ —

q^izrr^

25

ri— S^zg:

S^^SeS^

4^

=1

26

27

^jp^P^pg^

P

^3=33^^^^^=

]N N lJ F

E^^

^=

s^==l=

ign^ra:

p^^^jg

siiii

:g=?=i^i=*;

S^

s 28

=l==i^=3:

tEi;

244

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

30

m

-<^— J-

^-j-j,n

Music of the Thrush

1 _ 2 3

-1^ ^^ ^ N-n N-

::^=S=

^ — y=

^^^^'^^J

6

N N N

^^FS^

^^

JS_, ^-^^

^?^:^E*ii^

-:^=^^=^=^

!=&:

^M

8n^ „- 9 ^ 10

:it=«=it

11

;eES

i^^l^^Hia

PI

APPENDIX

245

14

mm

q=:^

^^^^^^na

Music of the Skylark

-^-..

:^^=^

:ggii^.^S^^|

J^-K-^^

:J=i=*:

ill

^

ii

3 r-i r^ p^

q=*~±=*:

•«;

:S=:^zin=Z

J ^-

.^"^^

\ \

m

S , D.C.

gli^

N 1 N , N

I

246

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

m

ijan^-iizjiia:

m

^.. I &==r-

a^ I ~_\ — ^ I TH

£iB;

^-S fe-> ^t— S-s'" n-1 ^— -n^ J Ml , . ' n f", 1

fe;^ ^^^^^-^-Il^^^-;j=j" ^-^^-"=J^:

:i=l^

:S^S=

ignrrq:

3^

;^i

:s=3=«=

1^^-^ p < / J J ■^- j-j^ — ii^tj ^

.0 m — « — .M — ^ m — ^ K — 0 — m — ^ — m — j —

-N_S-«i.

±4;

9 . ^ 10 .

.^-^.

:^

^

ts g

11

r-r^,

1 O many times repeated.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT

The following are the chief publications which
contain information on bird -song. The authors
are mentioned alphabetically : —

Barrington, D. Experiments and Observations on the Singing of

Birds (Roy. Soc. Phil. Trans., vol. Ixiii., 1773, pp. 249-291).
Bechstein, J. M. Natural History of Cage Birds.
Belon. Oiseaux. Paris, 1555.
Bree. Birds of Europe, not found in Britain.
Chambers's Journal, vol. ix. No. 423.
Cheney, Simeon Pease. Wood Notes Wild, Notations of Bird Music.

Boston, 1892.
Coleman, A. P. Music in Nature {Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 605).
Darwin, Charles. Descent of Man.

,, ,, Expression of the Emotions.

Field, The. Published weekly, London.

Fowler, W. Warde. Summer Studies of Birds and Books, 1895.
Gardiner, W. The Music of Nature. London, 1832.
Gould, John. Handbook of the Birds of Australia.
Harting, J. E. Birds of Middlesex. London, 1866.

,, ,, Ornithology of Shakespeare. London, 1871.

,, ,, Our Summer Migrants.

Hudson, W, H. Birds in a Village.

,, ,, Idle Days in Patagonia.

,, ,, The Naturalist in La Plata.

Jesse, Ed. Gleanings in Natural History. London.
KiRCHER, A. Musurgia Universalis, lib. i. Romce, 1590.
La yard. Birds of South Africa.
Lescuyer, F. Langage et Chant des Oiseaux. Paris, 1878.

248 EVOLUTION OF BIRD-SONG

Library of Entertaining Knowledge. Domestic Habits of Birds.

London, 1833.
Macgillivray, W. History of British Birds.
Magazine of Natural History, vol. i. p. 346; vol. ii. p. 113.
Montague, Col. G. Ornithological Dictionaiy.
Montbeillard. Oiseaux.
Saxby, Dr. H. L. The Birds of Shetland.
Smee, a. My Garden. London, 1872.
Sterland. Birds of Sherwood Forest.
Syme. British Song-birds.
Weber, Dr. F. On Melody in Speech {Longman^ s Magazine, vol. ix.

1877, PP- 399-411)-
White, Gilbert. Natural History of Selborne.
Wilson and Buonaparte. American Ornithology.
Witchell, C. a. The Evolution of Bird-song {Zoologist, July and
August 1890).
,, ,, Bird-song and its Scientific Value (Proc. Cottes-

wold Naturalists' Field Club, vol. x. part 3).
,, ,, The Voice-Languages of Birds (Proc. Cheltenham

Nat. Soc, 1892).
,, ,, The Scientific Value of Bird-song ( The Field, 27th

April 1895).
Zoologist, The. A monthly publication, London.

INDEX

Alarm-notes, 22

discrimination in, 27-30

elaboration of, 23

inducing silence, 31

inheritance of, 30

of blackbird, 24

of young birds, 25

origin of, 22

relation to enemies, 26

repetition of, 23

variation of, 26, 236
American bluebird, 102
American robin, 97, loi, 104
Angola finch, 132
Archetypal cries, 137
Argentine blackbird, iii
Australian robins, iii

Bechstein on mimicry, 192, 218

Bird-songs, defined, 10

Blackbird, 56, 65, 67, 73, 80, 95,

97, 166, 224
Blackbirds and dog, 29
Blackcap, 67, 68, 73, 150
Black-headed bunting (Am.), 122
Black redstart, 105
Blue jay (Am.), 94
Blue titmouse, 53, 55
Brambling, 126

Broad-billed flycatcher (S. Af.), 191
Brown wren, 51, 55, 73
Bullfinch, 34, 50, 56, 61, 172
Buntings and finches, 122

Call-note, 40
abandoned, 47
in song, 53
repeated for song, 50

Call-note, repetition of, 49
Call-notes of allies alike, 68
Canary, 34, 40, 163, 172
Catbird (Am.), 165
Chaffinch, 42, 43, 55, 67, 147,

150, 225
Chaffinchs' battle-cry, 43

call, 42
Chat thrush (S. Af.), 104
Chickadee (Am.), 135
Chicks, 86
Chiffchaff, 61

Cirl-bunting, 56, 68, 120, 187
Coal tit, 55

Cock of the rock (S. Am.), 67
Cock's crow, 26, 37, 51, 56, 64
Colymbidae, 46
Combat, influence of, 33
song in, 37
wren's song in, 39

Common bunting, 55

Conclusion, 239

Confinement, effect of, 75

Creeper, 50

Crestedscreamer(S. Am.), 69, 81, 85

Cries, characters of, 47
persistence of, 46

Crow of British Columbia, 93

Crows, 95, 163, 164, 175

Cuckoo, 89, 134, 143. 154. 155

Cushat, 51

Dancing, 66
Dartford warbler, 113
Dendrocolaptidas, 60
Dog, use of, 99
Doves, 134
Ducks, 86, 89, 182

250

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

Eagle owl (S. Af.), i88
Emberizidas, 120

Environment, effects of, 177, 199,
227

Family cries, 90

Fear, influence of, 45, 76

Females singing, 56

Ferruginous thrush (Am.), 11 1

Fieldfare, 96

Field-sparrow (Am.), 186

Finches and buntings, 122

First cries, 7

Fog, effect of, 64, 107

Fowl, 86, 89, 134

Frogs, 19

Frost, effect of, 194

Gallinaceous birds, 35
Garden warbler, 109
General and special types, 92
Golden-crested wren, 50, 67, 222
Golden plover, 87, 89
Goldfinch, 125, 126, 128, 151, 171
Goldfinch (Am.), 83, 132
Goose, 86
Grasshopper-warbler, 55, 56, 60,

68, 186
Greater nightingale, 104
Great tit, 55, 92
Green bulbul (India), 175
Greenfinch, 36, 50, 68, 80, 125-128,

169, 173
Green woodpecker, 67
Grunts (first cries), 14, 15

Hawfinch, 172

Hedge-sparrow, 50, 73, 147

Heredity, 86-139
and imitation, 90
in Anatidas, 138
in blackbird and robin, 97
in blackbird and thrush, no
in blackcap and garden-warbler,

109
in buntings and finches, 123
in buntings and pipits, 120
in chaffinch and brambling, 131

Heredity, in chaffinch and house-
sparrow, 129

in chick, 86

in Corvidas, 93

in Corvidae and Turdidse, 95

in cuckoos, 134

in finches, 125

influence of, 86

in greenfinch and brambling, 126

in greenfinch and canary, 125

in lapwing, 88

in larks and pipits, 118, 119

in mistle- thrush and American
robin, 107, 108

in mistle-thrush and ouzel, 108

in mistle-thrush and redwing, 138

in nightingale and lesser white-
throat, 107

in nightingale and sedge-warbler,
107

in partridge, pheasant, and fowl,

134

in pheasant, etc., 89

in pigeons and doves, 134

in pipits, 102

in raptorial birds, 134

in redstart and flycatcher, 99, 104

in redstart and nightingale, 105

in redstart and robin, 97, 98

in redstart and warblers, 99, 104

in redstart and whitethroat, 105

in rhea, 88

in robin and blackbird, 104

in robin and hedge-sparrow, 114

in robin and nightingale, 104

in sparrows, notes of, 129-131

in thrushes and warblers, 95,

100-104, 117
in tinamu, 88
in Turdidse, 95

in wagtails and pipits, 117, 118
in warblers compared, 113
in willow-warbler and yellow-bird

(Am), 106
in woodpeckers, 134, 143

Hissing, 15-17

Homing pigeon, 66

Hooded crow, 93, 146

House-sparrow, 61, 153, 154, 160,
169

INDEX

251

Imitation, 4, 159-229

and heredity, 162

filial, 160

in blackbird, 224

in bullfinch, 172

in canaries, 163, 172

in captive birds, 162

in catbird (Am. ), 165
■ in chaffinch, 225

in crows, 163

in dog, 160

in finches, 169

in fish, 161

influence of, 159

in foreign birds, 174

in goldcrest, 222

in goldfinch, 171

in green bulbul (India), 175

in greenfinch, 169, 172

in hawfinch, 172

in house-sparrow, 169

in hybrid finches, 172

in jay, 164, 165

in linnet, 170, 172

in marsh-warbler, 220

in menuras (Australia), 174, 175

in minah (India), 175

in mistle-thrush, 165

in mocking-bird (Am.), 165

in nightingale, 218

in nutcracker, 164

in nuthatch, 223

in redstart, 192, 218

in reed-bunting, 223

in reed-warbler, 221

in robin, 195, 206-208

in sedge-warbler, 197, 214

in shrikes, 173, 174

in skylark, 196, 208

in starling, 196, 211, 233

in stonechat, 224

in thrush, 194, 200

in thrushes, 165

in warblers, 167

in wheatear, 168, 222

in whinchat, 168

in whitethroats, 223

observations on, 175- 181

of birds, 190

of elements, 181

Imitation of insects, 186
of quadrupeds, 187
survivals of, 227

Indigo bird (Am.), 122

Instrumental music, 143

Introduction, i

Jackal buzzard (S. Af.), 188
Jackdaw, 55, 93

Kestrel, 49, 53, 79
Kingbird (Am. ), 37
Kingfisher, 155

Laborious birds, 79

Landrail, 189

Lapland finch, 132

Lapwing, 87, 89

Lark, mimicry of, 196, 208

music of, 245
Larks and pipits, 118
Leisure, necessary, tj
Lesser spotted woodpecker, 50
Linnet, 68, 83, 152, 170, 172

Marsh-tit, 42

Marsh-warbler, 220

Menuras (Austraha), 69, 174, 175

Minah (India), 175

Mistle-thrush, 64, 95, 96, no, 165

Mocking-bird (Am.), 165

Music, antiquity of, 232

of American robin, 238

of bird-song, 230

of blackbird, 241

of blackbird's alarm, 236

of blackcap, 237

of chaffinch, 235

of coal titmouse, 235

of cock-crows, 234

of hedge-sparrow, 236

of mistle-thrush, 237

of robin, 235

of skylark, 238, 245

of starling and parrot, 233

of streams, 184

of thrush, 231, 244

pitch not noticed, 233

252

EVOLUTION OF BIRD- SONG

Nestling, education of, 171
Newts, 17

Newts and snakes, 18
Nightingale, i, 52, 55, 62, 67, 109,

144, 166, 218
Nightjar, 68, 186
Northern diver, 63
Noticeable incidents of song, 57
Nutcracker, 94, 164
Nuthatch, long note of, 54

Olivaceous thrush (S. Af. ), 96

Ortolan bunting, 121

Osprey, 63

Ostrich, 188

Oven bird (S. Am.), 60, 61, 89

Partridge, 86, 89, 134
Peregrine falcon, 17
Perpetuation of cries, 47
Persistence of cries, 135
Pheasant, 86, 89, 134
Phrase, defined, 10
Picus pileatus (Am. ), 63
Pied wagtail, 51
Pine finch (Am.), 132
Pine grosbeak, 50
Pinnated grouse (Am.), 37
Pipits, 117, 118, 120
Poetical writers, 9
Polygamous species, 35

Raptores, 46
Rasorial birds, 79
Recording, method of, 4
Red-headed woodpecker (Am.), 187
Redpoll, 68

Redstart, 56, 82, 97, 105, 192, 218
Redwing, 94

Red-winged starling (Am. ), 83
Reed-bunting song, 122, 123, 223
Reed-warbler, 68, 221
Repetition of intervals, 57
Rice-bunting (Am.), 123
Rice troupial (Am.), 83
Ringed plover, 50
Ring ouzel, 96

Robin, 34, 51, 61, 63, 65, 77, 97,
103, 152, 166, 195, 206-208

Rook, 49, 93, 146
Rupicola (S. Am.), 67

Scarlet bullfinch, 191
Sedge-warbler, 68, 80, 197, 214-

217
Shrikes, 27, 173, 174, igi
Shrike thrush (Austraha), iii
Siskin, 68
Skylark, 34, 52, 54, 56, 61, 82,

120, 196, 208-211
Snake, 189

Snow-bunting, 37, 120, 122
Song, accent in, 73, 238
Song apparatus in crows, etc., 70,

72
Song-birds and sober hues, 73
Song, by adults, 61

by males, 59

effect of fog, 64

flight in, 80

in chorus, 83

increased vehemence, 67

in rain, 63

laborious birds and, 79

leisure for, 75

morning and evening, 61

only in small birds, 68

varied at end, 68

ventriloquism, 82
Songs, rise in pitch, 67

the simplest, 49
Squirrel, 189
Starling, 53, 56, 67, tj, 83, 94,

152, 196, 211-214
Stock-dove, 51, 53, 68
Stonechat, 55, 224
Strain, defined, 11
Swallow, 29, 55
Swallow's alarm, 29
Swan, 89, 155
Swift, 83, 182, 183
Surroundings, pleasure in, 65

Thrush, 2, 61, 65, 73, 95, 96,

no, 194, 200-206
Thrushes and warblers, 95, 117
Tinamu, 54, 88, 89
Titmice, 55, 134
Towhe bunting (Am.), 122

INDEX

253

Tree-creepers, 60
Tree-pipit, 55, 82
Turkey, 86, 89
Tyrant flycatcher (Am. ), 60

Vancouver wren, 135
Variation, 140

absence of, 144

at end of song, 156

in blackbird's alarm, 236

in blackbird's song, 108, 148

in chaffinch, 148, 235

in cock-crow, 234

in robin's alarm, 157

in speed, 157

instances of, 146

local, 146, 149

progressive, 36, 148

transient, 153
Voice, accidental, 17-19

Voice, Darwin's theory of, 13
origin of, 12

Warblers and thrushes, 95, 117

Wheatear, 168, 222

Whinchat, 168

Whitethroats, 68, 105, 107, 112,

113, 223
Willow-warbler, 52, 56, 61, 65, 67,

147, 149, 150, 151
Wings, moved in song, 56
Woodhewers (S. Am.), 60
Woodlark, 65
Woodpeckers, 46
Wood-wren, 56, 67, 80, 145

Yellow bunting, 51, 55, 67, 187
Young birds, cries of, 44

Zebra finch, 53

THE END

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