That in itself was not surprising.
这本身没什么令人惊讶的
The sons were tutored by their father.
儿子都是由父亲教出来的
But when the researchers compared song over the generations,
但当研究者将数代鸟的鸣叫声进行对比时
they saw something extraordinary.
就有了不同寻常的发现
Each new generation of birds didn't just imitate their father's song.
新的每一代都不仅仅模仿其父亲的叫声
They also improved it.
它们也在优化叫声
By the fourth generation, the finches were singing
到了第四代 这批珍珠鸟的叫声
a version of the song that normal birds sing,
与正常同类的叫声相差无几
Despite none of their colony having ever heard it.
尽管它们从未听过正常同类的叫声
We were very pleased to see how quickly normal songs
看到这群鸟这么快就将隔离产生的
start emerging out of those very unstructured songs of the isolate
无序叫声变为正常鸣叫 我们很高兴
and that individual bird has this ability to imitate and to improve,
鸟类个体有能力去模仿和优化叫声
and improve at the level that he makes the song more species like
使其听上去更像自己族群的语言
and perhaps more effective.
也可能更好听