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Science 4 November 1977:
Vol. 198. no. 4316, pp. 519 - 521
DOI: 10.1126/science.198.4316.519
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Articles

Selective Vocal Learning in a Sparrow

PETER MARLER 1 and SUSAN PETERS 1

1 Rockefeller University Field Research Center, Millbrook, New York 12545

Male swamp sparrows learn their songs; they fail to learn songs of the sympatric song sparrow. Syllables from tape recordings of both species of sparrow were spliced into an array of swamp sparrow-like and song sparrow-like temporal patterns. Swamp sparrows learned only those songs made of swamp sparrow syllables. They did so irrespective of whether the temporal pattern was swamp sparrow-like or song sparrow-like. Selectivity was retained by birds reared in total isolation from adult conspecific sounds.

Submitted on March 17, 1977
Revised on June 15, 1977


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