comes eye-witnefs of the pullers feldom failing. The wild birds fy (as the bird-catchers term it) chiefly during the month of October, and part of September and November; as the flight in March is much lefs confiderable than that of Michaelmas. It is to be noted alfo, that the feveral fpecies of birds of flight do not make their appearance precifely at the fame time, during the months of September, October, and November. The Pippett, for example, begins to fly about Michaelmas, and then the Woodlark, Linnet, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, and other birds of flight fucceed; all of which are not easily to be caught, or in any numbers, at any other time, and more particularly the Pippet and the Woodlark. Thefe birds, during the Michaelmas and March flights, are chiefly on the wing from day break to noon, though there is afterwards a fmall flight from two till night; but this however is fo inconfiderable, that the bird-catchers always take up their nets at noon. It may well deferve the attention of the naturalift whence thefe periodical flights of certain birds can arife. As the ground however is ploughed during the months of October and March for fowing the winter and lent corn, it fhould feem that they are thus fupplied with a great profufion both of feeds and infects, which they cannot fo eafily procure at any other season. It may not be improper to mention another circumftance, to be obferved during their flitting, viz. that they fly always against the wind; hence, there is great contention amongst the bird-catchers who fhall gain that point; if (for example) it is wefterly, the bird-catcher who lays his nets moft to the east, is fure almoft of catching every thing, provided his call-birds are good: a gentle wind to the fouth-weft generally produces the beft fport. a yellowhammer, titlark, and aberdavine, and perhaps a bullfinch; thefe are placed at fmall distances from the nets in little, cages. He hath, befides, what are called flur-birds, which are placed within the nets, are raifed upon the flur *, and gently let down at the time the wild bird approaches them. Thefe generally confift of the linnet, the goldfinch, and the greenfinch, which are fecured to the flur by what is called a brace +; a contrivance that secures the birds without doing any injury to their plumage. It having been found that there is a fuperiority between bird and bird, from the one being more in fong than the other; the bird-catchers contrive that their call-birds should moult before the ufual time. They, therefore, in June or July, put them into a clofe box, under two or three folds of blankets, and leave their dung in the cage to raise a greater heat; in which state they continue, being perhaps examined but once a week to have fresh water. As for food, the air is fo putrid, that they eat little during the whole ftate of confinement, which lasts about a month. The birds frequently die under the operation ; and hence the value of a stopped bird rifes greatly. When the bird hath thus prematurely moulted, he is in fong, whilft the wild birds are out of fong, and his note is louder and more piercing than that of a wild one; but it is not only in his note he receives an alteration, the plumage is equally improved. The black and yellow in the wings of the goldfinch, for example, become deeper and more vivid, together with a moft beautiful glofs, which is not to be feen in the wild bird. The bill, which in the latter is likewife black at the end, in the stopped bird becomes white and more taper, as do its legs: in fhort, there is as much difference between a wild and a stopped bird, as there is between a horfe which is kept in body clothes, or at grafs. When the bird-catcher hath laid his. The bird-catcher who is a fubftantial man, and hath a proper apparatus for this purpose, generally carries with him five or A moveable perch to which the bird is tied, fix linnets (of which more are caught than and which the bird-catcher can raife at pleasure, any finging bird) two goldfinches, two by means of a long string faftened to it. greenfinches, one woodlark, one redpoll, These nets are known in most parts of England by the name of day-nets or clap-nets; but all we have feen are far inferior in their mechanifm to thofe ufed near London. + A fmall fpecies of Lark, but which is inferior to other birds of that genus in point of Jong. ftring that is faftened round the bird's body, and +A fort of bandage, formed of a flender filken under the wings, in fo artful a manner as to hinder the bird from being hurt, let it flutter ever so much in the raifing. We have been lately informed by an experienced bird-catcher, that he purfues a cooler regimen in ftopping his birds, and that he therefore feldom lofes one: but we fufpect that there is not the fame certainty of making them moult. 3 R 4 netsa nets, he difpofes of his call-birds at proper intervals. It must be owned, that there is a moft malicious joy in thefe call-birds to bring the wild ones into the fame state of captivity; which may likewise be obferved with regard to the decoy ducks. Their fight and hearing infinitely excels that of the bird-catcher. The inftant that the wild birds are perceived, notice is given by one to the reft of the call-birds (as it is by the firft hound that hits on the fcent to the rest of the pack) after which follows the fame fort of tumultuous ecftacy and joy. The call-birds, while the bird is at a distance, do not fing as a bird does in a chamber; they invite the wild ones by what the bird-catchers call fhort jerks, which when the birds are good, may be heard at a great distance. The afcendency by this call or invitation is fo great, that the wild bird is stopped in its courfe of flight, and if not already acquainted with the nets t, lights boldly within twenty yards of perhaps three or four bird-catchers, on a spot which otherwife it would not have taken the leaft notice of. Nay, it frequently happens, that if half a flock only are caught, the remaining half will immediately after wards light in the nets, and share the fame fate; and fhould only one bird escape, that bird will fuffer itself to be pulled at till it is caught, such a fascinating power have the call-birds. While we are on this fubject of the jerking of birds, we cannot omit mentioning, that the bird-catchers frequently lay confiderable wagers whofe call-bird can jerk the longeft, as that determines the fuperiority. They place them oppofite to each other, by an inch of candle, and the bird who jerks the ofteneft, before the candle is burnt out, wins the wager. We have been informed, that there have been inftances of a bird's giving a hundred and feventy jerks in a quarter of an hour; and we have known a linnet, in fuch a trial, perfevere in its emulation till it fwooned from the perch: thus, as Pliny fays of the nightingale, vida morte finit fæpe vitam, spiritu prius deficiente quàm cantu. Lib. x. c. 29. It may be here observed, that birds when It may be alfo obferved, that the moment they fee a hawk, they communicate the alarm to each other by a plaintive note; nor will they then jerk or call though the wild birds are near. † A bird, acquainted with the nets, is by the bird-catchers termed a fharper, which they endeavour to drive away, as they can have no sport whilit it continues near them, near each other, and in fight, feldom jerk or fing. They either fight, or use short and wheedling calls; the jerking of these call-birds, therefore, face to face, is a moft extraordinary inftahce of contention for fuperiority in fong. It may be alfo worthy of obfervation, that the female of no fpecies of birds ever fings: with birds, it is the reverse of what occurs in human kind: among the feathered tribe, all the cares of life fall to the lot of the tender fex: theirs is the fatigue of incubation; and the principal fhare in nurfing the helplefs brood: to alleviate thefe fatigues, and to support her under them, nature hath given to the male the fong, with all the little blandishments and foothing arts; these he fondly exerts (even after courtship) on fome spray contiguous to the neft, during the time his mate is performing her parental duties. But that the fhould be filent, is also another wife provifion of nature, for her fong would difcover her neft; as would a gaudiness of plumage, which, for the fame reason, seems to have been denied her. To these we may add a few particulars that fell within our notice during our enquiries among the bird-catchers, fuch as, that they immediately kill the hens of every fpecies of birds they take, being incapable of finging, as alfo being inferior in plumage; the pippets likewise are indifcriminately deftroyed, as the cock does not fing well: they fell the dead birds for threepence or four-pence a dozen. Thefe fmall birds are so good, that we are furprised the luxury of the age neglects fo delicate an acquifition to the table. The modern Italians are fond of small birds, which they eat under the common name of Beccaficos: and the dear rate a Roman tragedian paid for one difh of finging birds⚫ is well known. Another particular we learned, in converfation with a London bird-catcher, was, the vaft price that is fometimes given for a fingle fong-bird, which had not learned to whistle tunes. The greatest fum we heard of, was five guineas for a chaffinch, that had a particular and uncommon note, • Maximè tamen infignis eft in bat memoria, Clodii fopi tragici biftrionis patina fexcentis H. S. taxata z in quo pofuit aves cantu aliquo, aut bumano fermone, vocales. Plin. lib. x. c. 51. The price of this expenfive difh was about 6843 l. 10. according to Arbuthnot's Tables. This feems to have been a wanton caprice, rather than a tribute to epicurifm. under under which it was intended to train others: and we also heard of five pounds ten fhillings being given for a call-bird linnet. A third fingular circumstance, which confirms an obfervation of Linnæus, is, that the male chaffinches fly by themselves, and in the flight precede the females; but this is not peculiar to the chaffinches. When the titlarks are caught in the beginning of the feafon, it frequently happens, that forty are taken and not one female among them: and probably the fame would be obferved with regard to other birds (as has been done with relation to the wheat-ear) if they were attended to. An experienced and intelligent birdcatcher informed us, that fuch birds as breed twice a year, generally have in their first brood a majority of males, and in their fecond, of females, which may in part account for the above obfervation. We must not omit mention of the bullfinch, though it does not properly come under the title of a finging-bird, or a bird of flight, as it does not often move farther than from hedge to hedge; yet, as the bird fells well on account of its learning to whistle tunes, and fometimes flies over the fields where the nets are laid; the bird. catchers have often a call-bird to enfnare it, though most of them can imitate the call with their mouths. It is remarkable with regard to this bird, that the female answers the purpose of a call-bird as well as the male, which is not experienced in any other bird taken by the London bird catchers. It may perhaps furprife, that under this article of finging birds, we have not mentioned the nightingale, which is not a bird of flight, in the fenfe the bird-catchers ufe this term. The nightingale, like the robin, wren, and many other finging birds, only moves from hedge to hedge, and does not take the periodical flights in October and March. The perfons who catch thefe birds, make ufe of fmall trap-nets, without call-birds, and are confidered as inferior in dignity to other bird-catchers, who will not rank with them. The nightingale being the firft of finging-birds, we shall here infert a few particulars relating to it. Its arrival is expected, by the trappers in the neighbourhood of London, the firft week in April; at the beginning none but cocks are taken, but in a few days the hens make their appearance, generally by them felves, though sometimes a few males come along with them. The latter are diftinguished from the females not only by their fuperior fize, but by a great fwelling of their vent, which commences on the firft arrival of the hens. They do not build till the middle of May, and generally chufe a quickfet to make their neft in. If the nightingale is kept in a cage, it often begins to fing about the latter end of November, and continues its fong more or lefs till June. A young canary bird, linnet, skylark, or robin (who have never heard any other bird) are faid beft to learn the note of a nightingale. They are caught in a net-trap; the bottom of which is furrounded with an iron ring; the net itself is rather larger than a cabbage-net. When the trappers hear or fee them, they ftrew fome fresh mould under the place, and bait the trap with a meal-worm from the baker's shop. Ten or a dozen nightingales have been thus caught in a day. Barrington. $21. Experiments and Obfervations on the SINGING of BIRDS. From the Philofophical Transactions, Vol. lxiii. As the experiments and obfervations I mean to lay before the Royal Society relate to the finging of birds, which is a fubject that hath never before been scientifically treated of, it may not be improper to prefix an explanation of fome uncommon terms, which I fhall be obliged to use, as well as others which I have been under a neceffity of coining, To chirp, is the first found which a young bird atters, as a cry for food, and is different in all neftlings, if accurately attended to; fo that the hearer may diftinguifh of what fpecies the birds are, though the neft may hang out of his fight and reach. This cry is, as might be expected, very weak and querulous; it is dropped entirely as the bird grows ftronger, nor is after wards intermixed with its fong, the chirp of a nightingale (for example) being hoarfe and difagreeable. To this definition of the chirp, I must add, that it confifts of a fingle found, repeated at very fhort intervals, and that it is common to neftlings of both fexes. The call of a bird, is that found which it is able to make when about a month old; it is, in most instances (which I happen to recollect) a repetition of one and the fame note, is retained by the bird as long as it lives, and is common, generally, to both the cock and hen *. The next stage in the notes of a bird is termed, by the bird-catchers, recording, which word is probably derived from a mufical inftrument, formerly used in England, called a recorder +. This attempt in the neftling to fing, may be compared to the imperfect endeavour in a child to babble. I have known instances of birds beginning to record when they were not a month old. This first effay does not seem to have the leaft rudiments of the future fong; but as the bird grows older and stronger, one may begin to perceive what the neftling is aiming at. Whilft the fcholar is thus endeavouring to form his fong, when he is once fure of a paffage, he commonly raises his tone, which he drops again, when he is not equal to what he is attempting; juft as a finger raises his voice, when he not only recollects certain parts of a tune with precifion, but knows that he can execute them. What the neftling is not thus thoroughly mafter of, he hurries over, lowering his tone, as if he did not wish to be heard, and could not yet fatisfy himself. I have never happened to meet with a paffage in any writer, which feems to re late to this ftage of finging in a bird, except, perhaps, in the following lines of Statius; "Nunc volucrum novi "Queftus, inexpertumque carmen, 66 Quod tacitâ ftatuere brumâ." Stat. Sylv. L. IV. Ecl. 5. A young bird commonly continues to record for ten or eleven months, when he is able to execute every part of his fong, which afterwards continues fixed, and is fcarcely ever altered *. When the bird is thus become perfect in his leffon, he is faid to fing his fong round, or in all its varieties of paffages, which he connects together, and executes without a pause. I would therefore define a bird's fong to be a fucceffion of three or more different notes, which are continued without interruption during the fame interval with a. mufical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement, or whilst a pendulum fwings four feconds. By the first requifite in this definition, I mean to exclude the call of a cuckow, or clucking of a hen †, as they confift of only two notes; whilst the short bursts of finging birds, contending with each other (called jerks by the bird-catchers) are equally diftinguifhed from what I term fong, by their not continuing for four feconds. As the notes of a cuckow and hen, therefore, though they exceed what I have defined the call of a bird to be, do not amount to its fong, I will, for this reason, take the liberty of terming fuch a fucceffion of two notes as we hear in these birds, the varied call. Having thus fettled the meaning of certain words, which I fhall be obliged to make ufe of, I fhall now proceed to ftate fome general principles with regard to the finging of birds, which feem to refult from the experiments I have been making for feveral years, and under a great variety of circumstances. Notes in birds are no more innate, than language is in man, and depend entirely upon the mafter under which they are bred, as far as their organs will enable them to imitate the founds which they have frequent opportunities of hearing. The bird called a Twite by the bird-catchers commonly flies in company with linnets, yet thefe two fpecies of birds never learn each other's notes, which always continue totally different. + The common hen, when the lays, repeats the fame note, very often, and concludes with the fixth above, which the holds for a longer time. Mot Most of the experiments I have made on this fubject have been tried with cock linnets, which were fledged and nearly able to leave their neft, on account not only of this bird's docility, and great powers of imitation, but because the cock is eafily diftinguished from the hen at that early period, by the fuperior whitenefs in the wing. In many other forts of finging birds the male is not at the age of three weeks fo certainly known from the female; and if the pupil turns out to be a hen, ❝ibi omnis Effufus labor." The Greek poets made a fongfter of the TET, whatever animal that may be, and it is remarkable that they obferved the female was incapable of finging as well as hen birds: Ειτ' εισιν οι τετλιγες εκ ευδαίμονες, Comicorum Græcorum Sententiæ, I have indeed known an inftance or two of a hen's making out fomething like the fong of her fpecies; but thefe are as rare as the common hen's being heard to crow. I rather fufpect alfo, that thofe parrots, magpies, &c. which either do not speak at all, or very little, are hens of thofe kinds. I have educated neftling linnets under the three beft finging larks, the fkylark, woodlark, and titlark, every one of which, instead of the linnet's fong, adhered entirely to that of their refpective inftructors. When the note of the titlark-linnet t was thoroughly fixed, I hung the bird in a room with two common linnets, for a quarter of a year, which were full in fong; the titlark-linnet, however, did not borrow any paffages from the linnet's fong, but adhered ftedfaftly to that of the titlark. I had fome curiofity to find out whether an European neftling would equally learn the note of an African bird: I therefore educated a young linnet under a vengo The white reaches almost to the shaft of the quill feathers, and in the hen does not exceed more than half of that space: it is alfo of a brighter hue. I thus call a bird which fings notes he would not have learned in a wild state; thus by a fkylarklinnet, I mean a linnet with the skylark fong; a nightingale-robin, a robin with the nightingale fong, &c. lina*, which imitated its African master fo exactly, without any mixture of the linnet fong, that it was impoffible to diftinguish the one from the other. This vengolina-linnet was abfolutely perfect, without ever uttering a fingle note by which it could have been known to be a linnet. In fome of my other experiments, however, the nestling linnet retained the call of its own fpecies, or what the birdcatchers term the linnet's chuckle, from some resemblance to that word when pronounced. I have before stated, that all my neftling linnets were three weeks old, when taken from the nest; and by that time they frequently learn their own call from the parent birds, which I have mentioned to confift of only a fingle note. To be certain, therefore, that a neftling will not have even the call of its fpecies, it fhould be taken from the neft when only a day or two old; because, though nestlings cannot fee till the feventh day, yet they can hear from the inftant they are hatched, and probably, from that circumftance, attend to founds more than they do afterwards, especially as the call of the parents announces the arrival of their food. I must own, that I am not equal myself, trouble of breeding up a bird of this age, nor can I procure any perfon to take the as the odds against its being reared are almoft infinite. The warmth indeed of incubation may be, in fome measure, fupplied by cotton and fires; but these delicate animals require, in this ftate, being fed almost perpetually, whilft the nourishment they receive fhould not only be prepared with great attention, but given in very small portions at a time. Though I must admit, therefore, that I have never reared myself a bird of so tender an age, yet I have happened to fee both a linnet and a goldfinch which were taken from their nefts when only two or three days old. thews, an apothecary at Kenfington, which, The firft of these belonged to Mr. Mat This bird feems not to have been defcribed by any of the ornithologists; it is of the finch tribe, and about the fame fize with our aberdavine (or fiskin). The colours are grey and white, and the cock hath a bright yellow fpot upon the rump. It is a very familiar bird, and fings better than any of thofe which are not European, except the American mocking bird. An inftance hath lately hap pened, in an aviary at Hampstead, of a vengolina's breeding with a Canary bird. from |