was unexpected, it gained him the good graces of all present. Similar to this, Omiah diftinguished himself when he was introduced to Lord Sandwich. He firft pointed to the butler, and faid, He was king of the bottles;" that Capt. Fourneaux" was king of the fhip;" but Lord Sandwich "was king of all the fhips." I mentioned that he had several wives; fome of which, however, he relinquished on account of their fterility. Some he ftill retains; but he intimated, when I enquired of him about the subject, that although he was happy in England; yet he should certainly be happier had he a wife in this country alfo. Capt. Fourneaux took up Omiah from Ulateiah; but his father, who is a man of very great confequence,owns large poffeffions in Otaheite, as well as in that island, and Omiah was born at Otaheite, where he had feen Dr. Banks and Solander, and knew them again when he arrived here. He was defigned for the priesthood: and his friends who entertained the highest esteem for him, ufed every argument they could fuggeft against his venturing with Captain Four neaux: they observed, that none of their friends had ever been brought back-that they had certainly been killed and eaten in which they were confirmed by feeing fome falted beef on board the English fhips; for, as these natives had never feen any quadrupeds, except thofe I have enumerated, they were perfuaded the falted meat could not be any of them, and therefore must have been human. They faid likewife, that these fhips failed from place to place, and thus the failors. fupported themfelves among the iflands, for that they had not any home of their own. But all these tremendous fuggeftions had no effect upon Omiah: he was refolved to die, or know the truth for him felf. Perhaps, if the hiftory of his countrymen be confidered, the doubts that muft naturally be prefented to him, and the circumftances of his independence, family, and popularity, there is not in any hiftory of the world a much greater inftance of refolution, intrepidity, and curiofity, if a parallel, to what Omiah has evinced. NATURAL HISTORY. S the experiments and obfer. Avations I mean to lay before the Royal Society relate to the finging of birds, which is a fubject that hath never before been fcientifically 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 neceflity of coining. To chirp, is the first found which a young bird utters, as a cry for food, and is different in all neftlings, if accurately attended to; fo that the hearer may diftinguish of what fpecies the birds are, though the neit may hang out of his fight and reach. This cry is, as might be expect ed, very weak and querulous; it is dropped entirely as the bird grows ftronger, nor is afterwards 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 short intervals, and that it is common to nestlings 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 inftances (which I happen to recol lect), a repetition of one and the fame note, is retained by the bird as long as it lives, and is commca, generally, to both the cock and hent. 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, Kircher, indeed, in his Mufurgia, hath given us fome few paffages in the fong of the nightingale, as well as the call of a quail and cuckow, which he hath engraved in mufical characters. Thefe inftances, however, only prove that fome birds have in their fong, notes which correfpond with the intervals of our common fcale of the musical octave. For want of terms to diftinguish the notes of birds, Bellon applies the verb chantent, or fing, to the goofe and crane, as well as the nightingale." Plufieurs "oifeaux chantent la noit, comme eft l'oye, la grue, & le roflignol." Bellon's Hift. of Birds. p. 50. formerly formerly used in England, called a recorder. This attempt in the neftling to fing, may be compared to the imperfect endeavours in a child to bab ble. I have known inftances of birds beginning to record when they were not a month old. This firft effay does not feem to have the least 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 raifes 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 nestling 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 relate to this ftage of finging in a bird, except, perhaps, in the following lines of Statius: Nunc volucrum novi Stat. Sylv. L. iv. Ecl. 5. It seems to have been a fpecies of young birds to pipe tunes. nues to record for ten or eleven months, when he is able to execute every part of his fong, which after-. wards 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 musical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement, or whilft a pendulum fwings four feconds. By the firft 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; whilft the fhort bursts of fingingbirds, contending with each other (called jerks by the bird-catchers), are equally distinguished 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 reafon, take the liberty of terming fuch a fucceffion of two notes as we hear in thefe birds, the varied call. Having thus fettled the meaning of certain words, which I fhall be obliged to make use of, I fhall now flute, and was probably used to teach Lord Bacon describes this inftrument to have been strait, to have had a lesser and greater bore, both above and below, to have required very little breath from the blower, and to have had what he calls a fipple or topper. See his fecond Century of Experiments. The common hen, when the lays, repeats the fame note very often, and concludes with the fixth above, which fhe holds for a longer time. F VOL. XVII. proceed proceed to hate 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 in nate 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. Moft of the experiments I have made on this fubject have been made 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 becaufe the cock is eafely diftinguished from the hen at that early period, by the fuperior whiteness in the wing*. In many other forts of finging birds, the male is not at the age of three weeks fo certainly known from female; and if the pupil turns out to be a hen, ibi omnis "Effufus labor." The Greek poets made a fong fter of the r, whatever animal that may be, and it is remarkable that they obferved the female was incapable of finging as well as hen birds: ET' εισιν οι τοτιγες εκ ευδαίμονες, tiæ, p. 452. Ed. Steph. I have indeed known an inftance or two of a hen's making out fomething like the fong of her species; but thefe are as rare as the common hen's being heard to crow. I rather fufpect alfo, that these parrots, magpies, &c. which either do not fpeak at all, or very little, are hens of thofe fpecies. I have educated neftling linnets under the three beft anging larks, the skylark, woodlark, and titlark, every one of which, instead of the linnet's fong, adhered entirely to that of their respective instructors. When the note of the titlarklinnet||was thoroughly fixed, 1 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 stedfastly 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 vengolina, 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. The white reaches almost to the shaft of the quill feathers, and in the hen does not exceed more than half. I thus call a bird which fings notes he would not have learned in a wild ftale: thus by a fkylark-linnet, I mean a linnet with a skylark fong; a nightingale-robin, a robin with the nightingale fong, &c. 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 spot 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. This vengolina-linnet was abfolutely perfect, without ever utter ing a fingle note by which it could have been known to be a linnet. In fome of my other experiments, however, the neftling linnet retain ed the call of its own fpecies, or what the bird-catchers term the linnet's chuckle, from fome refemblance to that word when pronounced. I have before stated, that all my neftling linnets were three weeks old, when taken from the neft; and by that time they frequently learn their own call from the parent birds, which I have mentioned to confift of only a single note. To be certain, therefore, that a neftling will not have even the call of its fpecies, it should be taken from the neft when only a day or two old; becaufe, though neftlings cannot fee till the feventh day, yet they can hear from the inftant they are hatched, and, probably, from that circumstance attend to founds more than they do afterwards; efpecially as the call of the parents announces the arrival of their food. I must own, that I am not equal myfelf, nor can I procure any perfon to take the trouble of breeding up a bird of this age, as the odds against its being reared are almost infinite. The warmth in. deed of incubation may be, in fome meafure, fupplied by cotton and fires; but thefe delicate animals require, in this ftate, being fed almoft 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 my felf a bird of fo 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. The first of thefe belonged to Mr. Matthews, an apothecary at Kenfington, which, from a want of other founds to imitate, almoft articulated the words pretty boy, as well as fome other fhort fentences: I heard the bird myself repeat the words pretty boy; and Mr. Matthews affured me, that he had neither the note or call of any bird whatsoever. This talking linnet died last year, and many people went from London to hear him fpeak. The goldfinch I have before mentioned, was reared in the town of Knighton in Radnorfhire, which I happened to hear, as I was walking by the houfe where it was kept. I thought, indeed, that a wren was finging; and I went into the houfe to inquire after it, as that little bird feldom lives long in a cage. The people of the house, how ever, told me, that they had no bird but a goldfinch, which they conceived to fing its own natural note, as they called it; upon which I ftaid a confiderable time in the room, whilft its notes were merely thofe of a wren, without the leaft mixture of a goldfinch. On further enquiries, I found that the bird had been taken from the neft when only two or three days old, that it was hung in a window which was oppofite to a fmall garden, whence the neftling had undoubtedly acquired the notes of the wren, without having had any opportunity of learning even the call of the goldfinch. |