= W. H. Thorpe
{c}
<W. H. Thorpe> studied how birds acquire song. His experiments on hand-reared <chaffinches> varied their auditory experience and compared later songs, including exposure to artificial tutoring patterns. The design distinguished what develops without normal song exposure from what is shaped by hearing an appropriate model.<The learning of song patterns by birds, with especial reference to the song of the chaffinch Fringilla coelebs by W. H. Thorpe>[1958, publisher abstract: hand-rearing and Song Tutor experiments]{ref}
The illuminating point is that an orderly adult <behavior> need not be either wholly learned or wholly independent of experience. Controlled exposure can reveal constraints on <learning> while also showing that the final pattern depends on the sounds encountered.
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