How the wren taught her young to sing
In A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals, a family was said to have watched a wren and her young in a nest built inside a box. The box was placed so that they could see the mother settle beside its opening, facing the chicks, and sing her whole song distinctly[1].
One chick then tried to imitate her. It managed a few notes before its voice broke and it lost the tune. According to the anthology, the mother began again at the point where the chick had faltered and sang the rest. The chick tried once more, picking up where it had stopped; when it lost its way again, she supplied the remaining notes until it could finish[2].
The account says she repeated her full song before each of the other young attempted it, responding in the same way whenever one faltered. The family reportedly saw these exchanges several times a day, day after day. It is the anthology’s account of what they observed, not a verified modern account of how wrens learn to sing[3].
Let's look at alternatives:
- Modify the query.
- Start a new thread.
- Remove sources (if manually added).