THE SINGER AND THE SONG: ON THE RECEIVING END OF BIRD SONG

Variation in singing behaviour between males can involve fixed differences such as the song type composition of repertoires, as well as more flexible effects such as matched counter-singing (Krebs & Kroodsma, 1980; Section III. 4), differences in bout length (the number of songs in a period of song) and changes in strophe length. Short-term strophe length changes seem to be related to the willingness and ability of males to respond strongly to playback. Whether this is because strophe length indicates motivation or the degree of exhaustion of the neuromuscular song-production system, or both, is currently unclear.     

THE RELATION OF BIRD SONG TO MUSIC

Bird song is considered as a primitive form of music, and as an evolutionary anticipation of human music. Evidence is seen in the use of elementary musical devices: in the avoidance of mechanical regularity (principle of the "monotony threshold"): in the learning of songs and tunes: in the partial detachment from utility, and the playful cultivation of sound production: and, finally, in the tendency of species with more elaborate and, by our criteria, more "musical" songs to spend a larger fraction of the minute, day, and year singing (the "correlation of quantity with quality"). The best singers are those with more variety and complexity in the use of elementary musical devices.     

四种草螽雄性鸣声的研究

对分布于我国的长瓣草螽Conocephalus(Anisoptera)gladiatus,中华草螽C.(Amurocephalus)chinensis,悦鸣草螽 C.(Anisoptera)melaenus和斑翅草螽C.(Anisoptera)maculatus雄性鸣声进行了分析.研究结果表明,这4种草螽雄性鸣声的时域波形较简单,鸣声均由1种类型的脉冲组序列构成.长瓣草螽雄性鸣声每个脉冲组持续时间约0.13 s,脉冲组间隔约0.12 s,每个脉冲组通常由8脉冲构成,鸣声的频率范围5～20 kHz.中华草螽雄性的鸣声脉冲组由2个脉冲构成,每次鸣叫持续时间约为3.3 s,两次连续鸣叫间隔约10.5 s,鸣声频率范围为20 Hz～20 kHz.斑翅草螽雄性鸣声的脉冲组由10～13个脉冲构成,脉冲组持续时间2.1～2.5 s,两次连续鸣叫间隔时间约为3 s;鸣声频率从5.5 kHz到高于20 kHz.悦鸣草螽雄性鸣声由单一规则的重复脉冲组序列构成,每个鸣声脉冲组持续时间约0.035 s,脉冲组间隔约0.023 s,每个脉冲组由3个脉冲构成,脉冲组重复率20/s,鸣声频率6.0～20.0 kHz.     

MICRODIALECT AND GROUP SIGNATURE IN THE SONG OF THE SKYLARK ALAUDA ARVENSIS

ABSTRACT

The Skylark Alauda arvensis is a territorial species of open landscape in which pairs settle in stable and adjacent territories during the breeding season. Due to the heterogeneity of the habitat, territories are gathered in patches spaced by a few kilometres, in which each male produces very long and complex flight songs as a part of the territorial behaviour. We showed that, in a given patch, all the males (neighbours) share some particular sequences of syllables in their songs, whereas males settled in different patches (strangers) have almost no sequences in common. Such a phenomenon is known as microdialect. To test the hypothesis that these shared sequences support a group signature, we made playback experiments with “chimeric” signals: songs of strangers where the sequences shared by neighbours were artificially inserted. Behavioural responses to playbacks indicated a neighbour-stranger discrimination consistent with the dear enemy phenomenon, i.e. a reduced aggression toward neighbours compared to strangers. Furthermore, the same level of responses, observed when a “chimeric” song and a neighbour song were broadcast, indicated that shared sequences are recognised and identified as markers of the neighbourhood identity.     

非洲蝼蛄(G.africana Palisot de Beauvois)的鸣声特点

本文对北京非洲蝼蛄(G.africana.)的鸣声特点进行了分析.非洲蝼蛄的鸣声类似由调幅单音节组成的哨声.单音节的频谱特性基本相一致,其载波的主峰频率(MPF)调谐度(Q_(3dB))和MPF下降20dB的带宽分别为2539Hz、17.3和479Hz.但是哨声和单音节的周期是不均一的.在由302个哨声组成的鸣声段中,哨声周期和每个哨声内单音节平均周期的主要分布区分别为115-225ms和12.90-15.75ms.这些结果可能为蝼蛄声诱捕装置的生物原型和数学模型的研究提供某些依据.     

DIALECTS AND GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN THE SONG OF THE SPLENDID SUNBIRD NECTARINIA COCCINIGASTER

The male Splendid Sunbird has only one song type, each note of which has a simple frequency/time profile. An analysis of the songs of males from several localities near Legon (5^.63° N, 0.19° N) showed that there are clear-cut song dialects characterizing each population. Those parts of the song giving rise to dialects are the time interval between consecutive pairs of notes (the time interval pattern) and the frequency/time profile of each note.
The dialects were preserved over a period of three years (the duration of the study) and there was little variation in the song of a ringed bird over a period of two months. The boundary between dialects is apparently quite sharp, occurring perhaps within a distance of 50 m.
Marked geographical variation in the song occurs, and is expected because of the mosaic of dialects that presumably exist throughout the sunbird's range in southern Ghana. For dialects to be effective in keeping populations together, those characteristics of the song which give rise to dialects should be readily and quickly discerned and need not require a statistical demonstration. This condition holds for the song of the Splendid Sunbird.
The results are compared with the ideas of Nottebohm (1964) and Thielcke (1969) on the maintenance and usefulness of song dialects.     

CULTURAL INHERITANCE OF SONG AND ITS ROLE IN THE EVOLUTION OF DARWIN'S FINCHES

Songs of Darwin's finches were studied on the Galápagos Island of Daphne Major from 1976 to 1995. A single, structurally simple, and unvarying song is sung throughout life by each male of the two common species, Geospiza fortis (medium ground finch) and G. scandens (cactus finch). Songs of the two species differ strongly in quantitative features, and individual variation among males is much broader in G. fortis than in G. scandens. Although there are exceptions, songs of sons strongly resemble the songs of their fathers. They also resemble the songs of their paternal grandfathers, but not their maternal grandfathers, indicating that they are culturally inherited and not genetically inherited. Female G. fortis display a tendency to avoid mating with males that sing the same type of song as their father. They also avoid mating with males that sing heterospecific song, with very rare exceptions. Thus song, an evolving, culturally inherited trait, is an important factor in species recognition and mate choice. It constrains the mating of females to conspecifics, even when there is no genetic penalty to interbreeding, and thus may play a crucial role in species formation by promoting genetic isolation on secondary contact. The barrier is leaky in that occasional errors in song transmission result in misimprinting, which leads to a low incidence of hybridization and introgression. Introgression slows the rate of postzygotic isolation, but can produce individuals in novel genetic and morphological space that can provide the starting point of a new evolutionary trajectory.     

SONG MIMICRY AND SPECIES STATUS OF THE GREEN WIDOWFINCH VIDUA CODRINGTONI

Summary

Payne, R. B., Payne, L. L. &; Nhlane, M. E. D. 1992. Song mimicry and species status of the Green Widowfinch Vidua codringtoni. Ostrich 63:86-97.

The Green Widowfinch Vidua codringtoni mimics the songs of the Redthroated Twinspot Hypargos niveoguttatus, its apparent foster species, in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mala?i. Of 38 male Green Widowfinches, 37 mimicked the twinspot; one mimicked a firefinch and not the twinspot. A wild-captured juvenile developed mimicry of twinspot song after six months and retained its mimicry through the next year. Male Green Widowfinches have glossy breeding plumage (green to blue), black wings, white bill and bright orange feet, a colour combination unlike other widowfinches in their range in southern Africa. Females are marginally distinguishable from other widowfinch species. Green Widowfinches occur together locally with Black V. funerea nigerrima, Purple V. purpurascens and Steelblue V. chalybeata Widowfinches and do not interbreed with them. The four species of widowfinches in southern Africa each have distributional ranges within the limits of their foster species.     

THE IMITATIVE RANGE OF THE SONG OF THE MARSH WARBLER ACROCEPHALUS PALUSTRIS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO IMITATIONS OF AFRICAN BIRDS

This paper presents the first extensive evidence of vocal imitations of African birds by a Palaearctic migrant, the Marsh Warbler Acrocephalus palustris. Nearly 30 individual tape recorded repertoires have been analysed, most of them from Belgium; imitations of each identified species were compared to models by spectrographic analysis. A list of 113 African species (33 non-passerines, 80 passerines) was thus established (Appendix), which, added to the list of 99 European species, gives a total imitative range of 212 species. The low-pitched voices of many non-passerines exclude them from imitation. Vocal imitations of some rather local species in East Africa provide information on the localization of the autumn and winter quarters of A. palustris. In particular, the frequency of imitations of such species as Vinaceous Dove Streptopelia vinacea, Boran Cisticola Cisticola bodessa and Red-pate Cisticola C. ruficeps lends support to the idea of the existence of autumn quarters in northeastern Africa. Individual repertoires contain an average of 76.2 different imitated species (extremes 63–84), the number of African species (average 45.0) exceeding that of European species (average 31.2). About a fifth of the complete song remains unidentified and probably corresponds to imitations of African birds whose voices have not yet been recorded. The most recurrent imitations are those of noticeably noisy species, widespread in Africa. A. palustris appears not to be selective in its repertoire. Imitations of different species can, to some extent, be combined and alternated into original motifs. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the young A. palustris are still learning song motifs when on their way to their winter quarters and probably stop learning soon after their arrival there, most of them in January, at the age of 6–7 months. There is a temporal separation between the sensitive phase and the motor phase of song learning. No conclusion as to the possible functions of the imitative element of the song can be drawn at present.     

嵩山野生观赏植物研究

在１９８５－１９９１年调查研究的基础上,筛选出嵩山野生观赏植物６３科、１３２属、２５３种及变种。其中行道树、庭园树及风景林树种６３种,花灌木７４种,草本花卉４８种,草坪及耐荫植物３８种,垂直绿化植物２８种,树桩盆景植物２２种,切花植物２５种。最后,对嵩山野生观赏植物的保护和利用,提出了建设性意见。