SONG of bird*. The song of birds has been defined to be a succession of three or four different notes, which are con tinued without interruption through the same intervals, in a bar of four crotchets, adagio, or while a pendulum swings four seconds. It is observed, that notes in birds are no more innate than language in man, and that they depend entirely on the master under which they are bred, as far as their organs will enable them to imitate the sounds which they have frequent opportunities of hearing; and their adhering so steadily, even in a wild state, to the same song, is entirely owing to the nestlings attending only to the instruction of the parent-bird, whilst they disregard the notes of all others that may perhaps be singing round them. Birds, in a wild state, do not commonly sing more than six or seven months out of the twelve ; but birds that are caged, and have plenty of food, sing the greatest part of the year ; and we may add, that the female of no species of birds ever sings. It has been remarked, that there is no instance of any bird singing, whose size exceeds that of our black-bird ; and this is supposed to arise from the dif ficulty it would have of concealing itself, did it call the attention of its enemies, not only by its bulk, but by the propor tionable loudness of its notes. It has been noticed by some writers, that certain passages of the song in a few kinds of birds correspond with the intervals of our scale, of which indeed the cuckoo affords a striking and well known in stance ; but much the greater part of such song is not capable of musical nota tion; partly because the rapidity is often so great, and it is also so uncertain when they may stop, that we cannot reduce the passages to the form of any musical bar whatsoever; partly also because the pitch of most birds isconsiderably higher than that of the shrillest notes of our highest instruments ; and principally be cause the intervals used by birds are com monly so minute, and consequently so different from the more gross intervals into which we divide our octave, that we cannot judge of them. Most people, who
not attended to the notes of birds, suppose that all those of the same species sing exactly the same notes and passages, which is by no means true, though it must be admitted that there is a general resemblance. Thus the London bird catchers prefer the song of the Kentish goldfinches, and Essex chaffinches ; but some of the nightingale-fanciers prefer a Surry bird to one of Middlesex. The nightingale has been almost universally esteemed the most capital of singing birds ; and its superiority chiefly consists in the following particulars : its tone is much more mellow than that of any other bird, though, by the exertion of its powers, it can be extremely brilliant. Another point of superiority is its con tinuance of song without a pause, 'which is often extended to twenty seconds.
Soso, in music, is applied in general to a single piece of music, whether con trived for the voice or an instrument. A song has been compared to an oration ; for as, in this latter, there is a subject, viz. some person or thing the discourse is referred to, and which is always to be kept in view through the whole ; so, in every regular and melodious song, there is one note which regulates the rest; wherein the song begins, and at last ends : and which is, as it were, the prin cipal matter, or musical subject, to be regarded in the whole course of the song; and this principal or fundamental note is called the key of the song.