Читать книгу The Natural History of Cage Birds - Bechstein Johann Matthäus - Страница 3

What is most prized and admired in house birds is undoubtedly their song. This may be natural or artificial, the former being as varied as the species of the birds, for I know of no two indigenous species quite similar in their song; I ought, perhaps, to except the three species of shrike I have given, which, from their surprising memory, can imitate the songs of other birds so as to be mistaken for them: but a naturalist would soon perceive a slight mixture of the song natural to the imitator, and thus easily distinguish between the shrike that copied, and the titlark or red-breast copied from1. It is so much the more important to be well versed in the different birds’ songs, as to this knowledge alone we are indebted for several curious observations on these pretty creatures.

An artificial song is one borrowed from a bird that the young ones have heard singing in the room, a person’s whistling, a flageolet, or a bird-organ. Nearly all birds, when young, will learn some strains of airs whistled or played to them regularly every day; but it is only those whose memory is capable of retaining these that will abandon their natural song, and adopt fluently, and repeat without hesitation, the air that has been taught them. Thus, a young goldfinch learns, it is true, some part of the melody played to a bullfinch, but it will never be able to render it as perfectly as this bird; a difference not caused by the greater or less suppleness of the organ, but rather by the superiority of memory in the one species over that of the other.

We distinguish in birds a chirping and warbling, or song, properly so called; besides this, several species, with a large, fleshy, undivided tongue, are able to repeat articulate sounds, and they are then said to talk, such as parrots and jays.

It is remarkable, that birds which do not sing all the year, such as the red-breast, siskin, and goldfinch, seem obliged, after moulting, to learn to warble, as though they had forgotten; but I have seen enough to convince me that these attempts are merely to render the larynx pliant, and are a kind of chirping, the notes of which have but little relation to the proper song; for a slight attention will discover that the larynx becomes gradually capable of giving the common warble.

This method of recovering the song does not then show deficiency of memory, but rigidity occasioned by the disuse of the larynx. The chaffinch will exercise itself in this way some weeks before it attains its former proficiency, and the nightingale practises as long the strains of his beautiful song, before he gives it full, clear, and in all its extent2.

The strength and compass of a bird’s voice depend on the size and proportionate force of the larynx. In the female it is weak and small, and this accounts for her want of song. None of our woodland songsters produces more striking, vigorous, and prolonged sounds than the nightingale; and none is known with so ample and strong a larynx: but as we are able to improve the organisation of the body by exercise and habit, so may we strengthen and extend the larynx of several birds of the same species, so as to amplify the song in consequence, by more nutritive food, proper care, sounds that excite emulation, and the like; chaffinches, bullfinches, canaries, and other birds reared in the house, furnish daily examples of this.

I should not omit mentioning here an observation of Mr. Daines Barington3, which tends to prove the possibility of improving the song of wild birds, by rearing linnets, sparrows, and others, near some good warbler, such as a nightingale or canary, and then setting them at liberty; but, though there is some truth in this assertion, yet it is subject to certain restrictions. I only know of two ways of carrying this idea into execution; one by suspending the cages of the best warblers in the orchard where the birds which they are to teach breed; the other, to enclose these warblers in a large aviary of iron wire, in the open air. There let them teach their young ones, which may be set at liberty as soon as they are able to fly: but birds taken very young from the nest, and reared, formed, and educated in the house, would not have instinct to find their food when set at liberty, and must perish of hunger, or at least die in the winter.

The same remarks are applicable to a work published by M. Gambory at Copenhagen, in the year 1800.

I think, indeed, it is better to be contented with possessing in our houses artificial songs than to take so much trouble to alter and spoil the very delightful music of nature4.