Birdsongs and Avian Linguiatics— There’s More to Them Than Meets the Ears

The melodic singing of birds is a pleasure that most people enjoy. Perhaps you live in the country and welcome the robin’s song as the first herald of spring. Or maybe you live in a city apartment filled with the singing of a canary. I remember hearing a canary sing for the fust time at my grandmother’s house. I’ve been fascinated and thrilled ever since to hear birdsongs. As a onetime student of linguistics, I was doubly intrigued when I learned from Peter Marler, Rockefeller University, New York, that avian “linguistics” has become quite a sophisticated area of research. The songs of birds have been appreciated since Paleolithic times. 1-z Cave paintings of open-beaked birds suggest that our early ancestors were impressed by avian vocalizations. Literary references to birdsongs occur in Dante’s Divine Comedy, where different songs of various bird species symbolize paradise or hell.z John Locke was one of the first authors to write about the acquisition of birdsongs. In his seventeenthcent ury work, A n Essay Concerning Hu man Understanding, Locke stated that birds learn their tunes through perception and memorization.J Immanuel Kant noted in 1803 that house sparrows do not instinctively know their song, but must learn it.d But the scientific study of birdsongs is largely a twentieth-century development. Today, we know that not all birds sing. Most use simple cafls to communicate. These calls are innate, or hereditary, and usually provide basic information about danger, food, or mating.s,b December 20,1982