The Song of the Bird鳥之歌

Humans speak when they are happy and speak when they are sad. They speakwhen they are angry and they speak when they see a beautiful thing. They try tospeak even when they have nothing to say. Well， songbirds1 are the same.

They sing to tell their neighbors and strangers where their home is. Or theymay sing to warn2 other birds that an enemy3 is near. During the mating4 season，male birds sing with a great feeling. That’s because they want female birds tolike them.

The sparrow， the parrot， the thrush， the koel and even the crows aresongbirds. Nearly half the birds in the world are songbirds. There are about 4，000kinds of songbirds， and they are of many families. Songbirds can sing because theyhave a great and powerful5 vocal organ6， and it is called the syrinx7.

Ornithologists8 say they may practice their songs in some kind of schools，and there are elders teaching them along.

From the way they sing， we may think that these songbirds are bright andbeautiful. But， no， these birds are often small， dark-colored animals. And they livea lonely life in forests or on open grassland.

In fact， male birds with beautiful feathers do not sing; their bright feathers areso beautiful that the female birds like them， or to give a clear signal to other birds.Also， songbirds’dark feathers help them hide from their enemies.

The birdsongs are not always pleasing9， too. An American studied the redeyedvireo. The bird made the same sound 22，197 times in one day！ As the wellknownIndian ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali has said， hearing the musical10 sound ofthe koel can also be hard on the ears！

人類高興的時候會說話，難過的時候也會說話；生氣時會說話，看到美好的事物時也會說話；甚至無話可說時，也會試著說話。鳴禽亦是如此。

它們唱歌是為了告訴那些鄰居和陌生同類，哪兒是它們的家。或者，它們會唱歌以警告其他鳥類，敵人就在附近。在交配的季節，雄鳥會深情地鳴叫，因為它們想讓雌鳥喜歡它們。

麻雀、鸚鵡、畫眉、噪鵑，甚至烏鴉，都屬于鳴禽。世界上將近一半的鳥類都是鳴禽。全世界大約有4000 種鳴禽，它們被歸為不同的科。鳴禽之所以能唱歌，是因為它們有一個極好且功能強大的發聲器官，叫做鳴管。

鳥類學家稱，它們可能是在某所學校里學習過，而且還有長輩指導練習唱歌。

從它們唱歌的方式來看，我們可能會認為這些鳴禽的外表鮮艷而美麗。然而并不是，這些鳥通常是體型小巧，顏色單調的動物。它們在森林里或開闊的草原上獨自生活。

事實上，羽毛艷麗的雄鳥是不會唱歌的；它們鮮艷的羽毛美得讓雌鳥都喜歡，或者是向其他鳥類發出明確的信號。同樣，鳴禽的深色羽毛能幫助它們躲避敵人。

鳥兒的歌聲也不總是令人愉快的。一位美國人研究了紅眼綠鵑。這種鳥在一天內發出22197 次同樣的聲音！正如著名的印度鳥類學家薩利姆·阿里博士所說，就算聽到噪鵑的悅耳叫聲也會讓耳朵難受！

（英語原文選自：pitara.com）