BIRD-STORIES.
[TO THE EDI,TOR OF THE "SPEC CATOR.1 STE,—A blackbird of Upton Village, Berkshire, has given evidence of a quality supposed to belong only to the caged and trained one,—the faculty of imitation of other songs and sounds than its own; and as such an accomplishment must be of interest to the' naturalist, perhaps the Spectator would not think its narrative unworthy of its pages. A blackbird native of the place has surprised us lately by adding to his song, and with much apparent self-satisfaction, four notes from the song, "Merrily Danced the Quaker's Wife," always the same and broken off abruptly, and this copied from a captive parakeet in a neighbour's garden, hung outside for its health and pleasure, and trained in its own art of imitation and con- stantly exercising its acquisition, but renouncing it immedi- ately upon perception of the theft. The special interest in this is that it is voluntary acquisition; no training, no teach- ing, no capture, no dark cage, but a wild blackbird following its own pleasure, and suggesting faculty in the bird beyond what has been attributed to it, and of necessity interesting to the naturalist or lover of birds, their songs, and their ways.—
Previous page
