in Poetry, a little composition, consisting of easy and natural verses, set to a tune in order to be sung. See POETRY, No 120.

in Music, is applied in general to a single piece of music, whether contrived for the voice or an instrument. See AIR.

SONG of Birds, is defined by the honourable Daines Barrington to be a succession of three or more different notes, which are continued without interruption, during the same interval, with a musical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement, or whilst a pendulum swings four seconds.

It is affirmed, that the notes of birds are no more innate than language in man, and that they depend upon imitation, 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 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 above 10 weeks in the year, whereas birds that have plenty of food in a cage sing the greatest part of the year; and we may add, that the female of no species of birds ever sings. This is a wise provision of nature, because her song would discover her nest. In the same manner, we may rationally account for her inferiority in plumage. The faculty of singing is confined to the cock birds; and accordingly Mr. Hunter, in dissecting birds of several species, found the muscles of the larynx to be stronger stronger in the nightingale than in any other bird of the same size; and in all those instances, where he differed both cock and hen, the same muscles were stronger in the cock. To the same purpose, it is an observation as ancient as the time of Pliny, that a capon does not crow.

Some have ascribed the singing of the cock-bird in the spring solely to the motive of pleasing his mate during incubation; others, who allow that it is partly for this end, believe it is partly owing also to another cause, viz. the great abundance of plants and insects in the spring, which, as well as seeds, are the proper food of singing birds at that time of the year.

Mr Barrington remarks, that there is no instance of any singing bird which exceeds our blackbird in size; and this, he supposes, may arise from the difficulty of its concealing itself, if it called the attention of its enemies, not only by its bulk, but by the proportionable loudness of its notes. This writer farther observes, that some passages of the song in a few kinds of birds correspond with the intervals of our musical scale, of which the cuckoo is a striking and known instance; but the greater part of their song cannot be reduced to a musical scale; 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 form a musical bar in any time whatsoever; partly also, because the pitch of most birds is considerably higher than the most shrill notes of those instruments which have the greatest compass; and principally, because the intervals used by birds are commonly so minute, that we cannot judge of them from the more gross intervals into which we divide our musical octave. This writer apprehends, that all birds sing in the same key; and in order to discover this key, he informs us, that the following notes have been observed in different birds, A, B flat, C, D, F, and G; and therefore E only is wanting to complete the scale: now these intervals, he says, can only be found in the key of F with a sharp third, or that of G with a flat third; and he supposes it to be the latter, because admitting that the first musical notes were learned from birds, those of the cuckoo, which have been most attended to, form a flat third, and most of our compositions are in a flat third, where music is simple, and consists merely of melody. As a farther evidence that birds sing always in the same key, it has been found by attending to a nightingale, as well as a robin which was educated under him, that the notes reducible to our intervals of the octave were always precisely the same.

Most people, who have not attended to the notes of birds, suppose, that every species sing exactly the same notes and passages: but this is by no means true; though it is admitted that there is a general resemblance. Thus the London bird-catchers prefer the song of the Kentish goldfinches, and Essex chaffinches; and some of the nightingale fanciers prefer a Surrey bird to those of Middlesex.

Of all singing birds, the song of the nightingale has been most universally admired: and its superiority (deduced from a cage-bird) consists in the following particulars; its tone is much more mellow than that of any other bird, though at the same time, by a proper exertion of its musical powers, it can be very brilliant. Another point of superiority is its continuance of song without a pause, which is sometimes no less than 20 seconds; and when respiration becomes necessary, it takes it with as much judgment as an opera-finger. The sky-lark in this particular, as well as in compass and variety, is only second to the nightingale. The nightingale also sings (if the expression may be allowed) with superior judgement and taste. Mr Barrington has observed, that his nightingale, which was a very capital bird, began softly like the ancient orators, referring its breath to swell certain notes, which by these means had a most astonishing effect. This writer adds, that the notes of birds, which are annually imported from Asia, Africa, and America, both singly and in concert, are not to be compared to those of European birds.

The following table, formed by Mr Barrington, agreeably to the idea of M. de Piles in estimating the merits of painters, is designed to exhibit the comparative merit of the British singing birds; in which 20 is supposed to be the point of absolute perfection.

<table> <tr> <th></th> <th>Melody</th> <th>Passages</th> <th>Plaining</th> <th>Compos.</th> <th>Execution.</th> <th>Pbilosophical Transformations.</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Nightingale</td> <td>-</td> <td>19</td> <td>14</td> <td>19</td> <td>19</td> <td>19</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Sky-lark</td> <td>-</td> <td>4</td> <td>19</td> <td>4</td> <td>18</td> <td>18</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Wood-lark</td> <td>-</td> <td>18</td> <td>4</td> <td>17</td> <td>12</td> <td>8</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tit-lark</td> <td>-</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Linnet</td> <td>-</td> <td>12</td> <td>16</td> <td>12</td> <td>16</td> <td>18</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Goldfinch</td> <td>-</td> <td>4</td> <td>19</td> <td>4</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Chaffinch</td> <td>-</td> <td>4</td> <td>12</td> <td>4</td> <td>8</td> <td>8</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Greenfinch</td> <td>-</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>6</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Hedge-sparrow</td> <td>-</td> <td>6</td> <td>0</td> <td>6</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Aberdavine or siskin</td> <td>-</td> <td>2</td> <td>4</td> <td>0</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Red-poll</td> <td>-</td> <td>0</td> <td>4</td> <td>0</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Thrush</td> <td>-</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Blackbird</td> <td>-</td> <td>4</td> <td>4</td> <td>0</td> <td>2</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Robin</td> <td>-</td> <td>6</td> <td>16</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> <td>14</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Wren</td> <td>-</td> <td>0</td> <td>12</td> <td>0</td> <td>4</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Reed-sparrow</td> <td>-</td> <td>0</td> <td>4</td> <td>0</td> <td>2</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Black cap, or Norfolk mock nightingale</td> <td>14</td> <td>12</td> <td>12</td> <td>14</td> <td>14</td> <td>14</td> </tr> </table>