DO BIRDS APPRECIATE THEIR OWN SONGS?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12696, 26 October 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

DO BIRDS APPRECIATE THEIR OWN SONGS?

It may well be doubted, says a writer in Harper's Magazine, if birds are musical connoisseurs, ,or have anything like human appreciation of their own or of each other's songs. My reason for thinking so is this: I have beard a bobolink with a defective instrument, so that its song was broken and inarticulate in parts, and yet it sang with as much apparent joy aod abandon as any of its fellows. I have also heard a hermit thrush with a similar defect or impediment, and yet it, too, appeared to sing entirely to its own satisfaction. It would be very interesting to know if these poor singers found mates as readily as their more gifted brothers. If they did, the Darwinian theory of "sexual selection" in such matters, according to which the finer songster would carry off the female, would fall to the ground. Yet it is certain that it is during the mating and breeding season that these " song combats" occur, and the favour of the female would seem to be the matter in dispute. Whether or not it be expressive of actual jealousy or rivalry, we have no oaer words to apply to it.