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Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 72

THE NATURALIST

j Teaching a Sparrow. v — Raised With Canaries, He Soon Learned To Imitate them. — # (American Journal of Psychology.) A series" of interesting experiments itt\ which English sparrows have been taught to sing_ sweetly is recorded by Dr Conradi. The aim of the experiment has been to determine what are the conditions under which birds learn and cling to their traditional notes. For this purpose he has taken very young birds of" non-musical species, and kept them entirely with songsters, to determine whether they, would' , thus acquire the musical notesJ In July, 1893, he put four fledgling English sparrows into ihe nest of a pair of singing canaries. Three of them died, but tho fourth survived. This one had already acquired a sparrow chirp; but, hearing thenceforth only the notes of the^ canary, !>e went no further with the language which , was his birthright. Instead,' he came gradu- - ally, when, among the canaries, to give notes different -from sparrow talk.- Even; . when he was silent/ if ihe canaries were, singing . Jie could be seen moving his' 1 throat as if he were trying to- form _the fsaunds, iruch. as a person ■ often * inaudibly follows a sons' which another, is. singing. At last ■ fcheso sounds be'ean v to be audible,. -and in- " ereafiinlfly so. "began^to give notes in yap-'d -succession, 1 .threo^br .four tones -up.' I the scale, and then- repeating "the" fop" iioie 1 five" or six times. " • - ! Growing bolder with practice and" the sound of his own voice,' he soon indulged " thrco or four runs in succession, with eight or 12 notes in each ; 'and in the last days of September, when three months old, he went up and down on the scale, all in one run. y All the while his voice had been chang- . ing-. At first, it was harsh, as is natural with English sparrows; but gradually, 'with tho effort or with the subconscious influence of tho sweeter sounds about him, it became softer and acquired something of the canary quality. I At first he> &nng y on s, low scale,- and tiied i tho top notes vainly; but as his- voice be1 came milder, ho went higher more easily. He was three months old when, growing bold, he essayed his first trill. It was' shorfc but musical, and he evidently liked i h -, f«r he repeated it, and; continued steadily to practice it. It was done modestly, and after each trill ho sat etill Wnd appeared to be listening. A year later, however, when the report was l>»ing written by the experimenter, h© had grown to be quite an adept in canary song, and -would trill and singcontinually, punctuating his sonar, with complete circles and aemi-circles on his perch. ' To try the effect -of 'association 'upon him. Dr Conradi iemoved> him for a' tinie. J J ii his' first, .year, • from the., canarice, and "l.)ufc him where ho heard only sparrow- chat- - .. ter. Gradually he oeaseS. to eingr, and be-"" gan to return to tha < neglected sparrSw.,.. tongue, but when , he .'was* a'gain 'hunef with"^ the canaries he regained all Jie had lost/in less than a month. --' ' ' - * --'" ' ,;