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Updated: May 29, 2025
We here turn from song as the expression of an instinctive disposition, and the question of what calls forth this expression, to the impression produced by the song on the hearer. Most birds have a call-note or a number of call-notes, which, generally speaking, are specifically distinct.
Well, scenes of hostility soon become apparent; as the birds approach one another they become more and more restive, their song ceases, they no longer search for food in the usual methodical manner, but instead their movements are hurried and their call-notes are uttered rapidly all of which betrays a heightened emotional tone.
Their plumage is almost always striking, but their voices are rather lisping than musical, though they sing pretty little snatches in the woods; but many of their call-notes sound more like the squeaks and buzzings of insects and tree-toads than like the voices of birds, and it will take time and practice before you can distinguish them apart.
But the moment we pass from the call-notes to a consideration of the songs we are faced with a very remarkable fact, for not only are these readily distinguished, but in many cases they bear no resemblance in any single characteristic.
We have finished with the true song birds now, and the next order is that of the Songless Perching Birds birds that have call-notes, some of them quite musical, but no true song. So we will name them the Birds that only Croak and Call.
These examples demonstrate that different songs are not represented by a corresponding number of different physiological contrivances; for if the difference were really attributable to some structural peculiarity, then the range of sounds embraced in the call-notes and the sexual call of any given species, must be the measure of the capacity of its instrument; and no matter how great its power of imitation may be, it follows that it will only be capable of copying those sounds which fall within that range.
In contrast with the call-notes, the majority of which can be heard at all times of the year, the song is restricted as a rule to one season, and that one the season of reproduction.
They live concealed, skulking like rails through the tall grass, fly reluctantly, and when driven up, their flight is exceedingly noisy and violent, the bird soon exhausting itself. They are solitary, but many live in proximity, frequently calling to each other with soft plaintive voices. The evening call-notes of the larger bird are flute-like in character, and singularly sweet and expressive.
Again, in contrast with the call-notes, which are common alike to both sexes, song is confined to one sex a peculiar property of the males.
They are the call-notes of the males. In the common field-cricket of Europe the male has been observed to place itself, in the evening, at the entrance of its burrow, and stridulate until a female approaches, when the louder notes are succeeded by a more subdued tone, while the successful musician caresses with his antennae the mate he has won.
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