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Show SEXUAL SELECTIOlf : BIRDS. PART IL ever of most binls and various strange cries are chiefly utterr ed durin()' the breedm• g-season, ancl serve as [b charm, or merbe ly as a ca1 1- note, t_ o the other sex · . Naturalists rrc much divided with respect to the obJect of t b e s.m g.m g of bn' ·ds · Few more careful ob orve"r s ov1e r Ii ved than MontaO'u, and he maintained that t?e ma es "of song-bu· ·ds ano d of many ot l1 er·s do not m genera. l " search for the female, but, on the co ntmr'-·'· '. their " b usm. ess m. tl1 0 sprm· o0• I·s to I)erch on some conspiC. u.o us "spot breathing out their full and amoro_us notes, whiCh, " by instinct, the female knows, and re~al~·s to the spot to " ch oose 1J: or rna t e. "'1:7 l\fi· · Jenner We. 1r m. forms me that this is certainly the case with the mg~tmgule. Bech-stein, who kept birds during his whole hfe, ass~rts, "that "the female canary always chooses the best smger, and ,, that in a state of nature tho female finch selects t~,~~. "male out of a hundred whose notes please her most. 'l1Jlere can be no doubt that birds closely attend to each other's song. Mr. Weir ha::; told me. of the case of a bullfinch which had been taught to p1pe a Gorman waltz, and who was so good a porform~r that he ~ost ten guineas; when this bird was first mtroducocl mto a room where other birds were kept and he beg_an to· sm· g, a1 1 the others ' consistinO' of about twenty lmnots b · l £. and canaries, ranged themselves on the noar~st s1c o o their cages, and listened with the. greate~t mtorest to• the now performer. Many natu~·ahsts "behevo that tl~-~ singing of birds is almost exclustvely the effect of _n " vnlry and emulation," and n?t _for the s~ke of c~~-r~:.mg their mates. This was the opm10n of Dames Banmoton nnd '\iVhito of Selborno, who both especially attended to z; 'Ornitholo,.ical Diction:ny,' 1833, P· 475. . W .. 2s 'No.turgcs~hichte der Stubenvogel,' 1840, s. 4. Mr. l~an·~son f11 likcwi.·e writes to me:-" I am informed th~tt _the best sm~u. g ~~~~ es. "gencmlly get 11 mo.tc first when they Me bred m tho so.mc IOOID. 1C IIAI'. XIJI. VOCAL MUSIC. 53 this subject.29 Barrington, however, admits that "supe ·' riority in song gives to birds an amazing ascendancy ., over others, as is well known to bird-catchers." It is certain that there is au intense degree of rivalry between the males in their singing. Bird-fanciers matc!h their birds to see which will sing longest ; ltncl I was told by Mr. Y an·ell that a first-rate bird will Bometimos sing till he drops down almost dead, or, .according to Bechstein,30 quite dead from rupturing a vessel in the lungs. Whatever the cause may be, male birds, as I hear from Mr. \Veir, often die sud< lcnly during the season of song. That the habit of :-;inging is sometimes quite independent of love is clear, for a sterile hybrid canary-bird has been described 31 .as singing whilst viewing itself in a mirror, and then ·<lashing 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. ad~antage of by bird-catchers; a male, in good ong, IS h1dden and protected, whilst a stuffed bird, surl'Ounded by limed twigs, is exposed to view. In this manner a man, as Mr. vVeir iuforms. me, has caught, in tho course of a single day, fifty, and in one instance .'3eventy, male chaffincheR. The power and inclination to. sing differ s~ greatly with birds that although the pnce of_ an ordmary male chaffinch is only sixpence, l\Ir. vVe1r saw one bird for which the bird-catchet· asked three. po~nds ; t~1e test of a really good singer being that It w1ll. contmue to sing whilst the ca()'e is swunO' round the owner's head. 0 b That birds should sing from emulation as well as for 29 'Philosophical Transo.ctions,' 1773, p. 263. White's • Natuml Histtory of Sclborne,' vol. i. 1825, p. 246. ~0 'No.turges. der Stubenvogel,' 1840, s. 252. • 11 Mr. Bold, 'Zoologist,' 18±3-44, p. G59. |
