Stephen E Bacher wrote: >Second, re birdsong: Whether it is instinctive or a product of conscious >avian thought (a possibility to be taken much more seriously with recent >research in mind), it still may not be "music" if its intent is to >communicate a message. I don't see why it's not possible for it to be both, but I assume Stephen means it may not be "music" to our ears rather than to those of the avian recipient of the message. I was considering the conscious thought angle this morning while listening to a starling. I'm unaware of the migratory habits of starlings or of their varieties, but those in this neck of the woods seem to have a small built-in processor which runs a short program in which pitch, duration and volume are totally random. It seems quite remarkable that a small bird can produce a long stream of notes which bear no relationship to its previous utterances. The habit seems to be to stand in an elevated position and let rip - the inescapable conclusion is that the bird is imparting a message it wants as many as possible of its fellows to hear. For all I know, it's an advertisement for a special on the Schoenberg string quartets. Somebody in another post wanted to know David Attenborough's whereabouts. He's repeating his The Life of Birds on local TV. Richard Pennycuick [log in to unmask]