Captive and Free Living European Starlings Use Differently Their Song Repertoire

Differentiai use of song types according to context appears to be a common feature in songbirds [e.g . : the Chestnut-sided Warbler Dendroica pennsylvanica (Lein, 1 97 8), the Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola (Cachpole & Leisler, 1 989), the Cuban Grassquit Tiaris canora (Baptista, 1978)] . The song types used can differ according to the season [e.g. the South island Robin Petroica australis (Pow1esland, 1 983)] , the bird position in the territory [e.g . : the Tufted Titmouse Parus bicolor (Schroeder & Wiley, 1 983)] , the intra or inter sexual context (e.g. the Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus, Searcy & Yasukawa, 1990) . On the basis of field recordings in different populations, Hausberger ( 1 997) distinguishes three classes of songs in European starlings . Class 1 songs corre­ spond to loud whistle types that are shared by the wild males of most populations ("species-specific themes": e .g . Adret-Hausberger, 1 989) ; class II songs corre­ spond to whistles that characterize individual males within a nest colony in the field and include heterospecific mimicries ("individual themes": e.g. Adret­ Hausberger et al. , 1 990) ; class III songs are long continuous and complex songs ("warbling" : e .g. Adret-Hausberger & Jenkins, 1 988). The class III songs are often preceded by class II songs (Eens et al. , 1 989; Hausberger, 1 99 1 ; Chaiken et al. , 1 993) . Field observations have shown that male starlings use these song classes differentially according to pairing status (Henry et al. , 1 994), colony size (Hausberger et al. , subm.) or social context (Adret-Hausberger, 1 982). A differ­ entiai use can even be observed within Class I songs according to season (Adret-Hausberger, 1 9 84) or social context (Adret-Hausberger, 1 982), particularly in song matching interactions. Only class I songs seem to be used in vocal interactions between males in field colonies. Each male starling has a repertoire of 3 to 5 class I songs and 1 to 1 2 class II songs (Adret-Hausberger, 1989) . Most field studies emphasize the frequent use of whistled songs by starlings in their colonies (Hartby, 1 969; Feare, 1 984; Wright & Cuthill, 1 992; Motis, 1 994) whereas little emphasis has been given to class I and II songs compared to class III