t age, called just like their relatives of the
sylvan solitudes; my brown thrashers uttered the labial chirp of the
species; my red-winged blackbird exclaimed "Chack! chack!" after the
manner of his kind; my bluebirds expressed their feelings in the sad
little purr of _Sialia sialis_; my flickers did not borrow the calls of
the red-heads, but each clung to its own language; my catbirds mewed
like poor pussy in trouble; and so on through the whole list. True,
these pets may have heard their parents' calls before they were taken
from the nest, but it is not at all likely that they would have
remembered them, for at first they only "cheeped" after the manner of
most bantlings, and only a good while afterward did they fall to using
the adult chirp. Besides, while still in the nest, they must have
heard many other bird calls; why did they not acquire them? Heredity
has laid a strong hand upon birds, and has drawn sharp dividing lines
among the various species.

Instinct also plays a large part in moving the bird to sing and to
render the peculiar arias of its kind. For instance, a pet wood thrush
of mine, secured at an early age and kept far away from all his kith of
the wildwood, became a fine musician. And what do you suppose was the
tune he executed? It was the sweet, dreamy, somewhat labored song of
the wood thrush in his native wilds. He never sang any other tune. I
think he sang it better than any wild thrush I have ever heard. It was
louder, clearer, more full-toned, but the quality of voice and the
technique were precisely the same. Who was his teacher? No one but
Nature, heredity, instinct, whatever you choose to call it. There was
no wild thrush within a half mile of his cage.

[Illustration: Robin]

The case of a pet thrasher was almost as striking. It is true, he may
have heard several of his kin singing about the premises during the
first spring of his captivity, but it is not probable that he learned
their melodies so early in life. As the next spring approached, he
began to sing the very medleys that the wild thrashers sing with so
much earnestness and skill, and this was long before any thrashers had
come back from the South.

I must now describe several cases in which inherited instinct did not
prove so true a teacher. A young robin was once given me by a friend,
and was kept by myself and others until the following summer. Strange
as it may seem, he never acquired the well-known robin ca