Do Birds sing by Instinct or by Imitation?
The Hon. Daines Barrington was of opinion that “notes in birds are no more innate than language is in man, and depend entirely on the master under which they are bred, as far as their organs will enable them to imitate the sounds which they have frequent opportunities of hearing.” He has given an account of his experiments in the “Philosophical Transactions” for 1773 (Vol. 63); he says: “I have 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 in a room with two common linnets for a quarter of a year, which were full in song; the titlark linnet, however, did not borrow any passage from the linnet’s song, but adhered stedfastly to that of the titlark.” He then goes on to say that birds taken from the nest at two or three weeks old have already learnt the call-note of their species. To prevent this the