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S.V.

JAMA. 1970;212(4):619.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Developmentally man may be akin to the ape, but behaviorally and metaphorically he is closer to the bird. A cooing dove in love, a predatory vulture at prey, a singing stool pigeon in court, a dove or a hawk in war, but always a "bird of a feather"—man possesses many avian characteristics. Like birds he flies, migrates, flocks, and— above all—he sings.

Why does a bird sing? Clearly when the poet asserted that...the reason a bird can sing— On his darkest day he Believes in Spring, he did not proffer a scientific explanation. Nor, apparently, did the old-time ornithologist who regarded bird song as solely a mating call in avian courting. Fear and aggression, boundary disputes dictated by the "territorial imperative," and nestrelief demands during incubation have been recently shown also to influence the complex pattern of bird vocalization. And it now appears that, whatever the motivation and physiology, the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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