FROM woods and meadows, suburban yards and city parks, a mixed chorus of avian melodies announces the arrival of spring. But many researchers who study bird songs are staying indoors. In laboratories equipped with sound-proof cages, spectrographs, computers and electron microscopes, they are trying to unravel the surprising complexities of these ode-inspiring utterances.
What they are finding suggests that even poets may have underpraised the communicative skills and musicality of song birds. And students of man may have overrated the uniqueness of human language and the ability to communicate through sound. "....
What they are finding suggests that even poets may have underpraised the communicative skills and musicality of song birds. And students of man may have overrated the uniqueness of human language and the ability to communicate through sound. "....
Starlings, though vastly underappreciated by most Americans, were much coveted as pets in Mozart's day. The master himself purchased one after hearing it sing a segment of a concerto he was writing (and had presumedly hummed in the bird's presence).
