Chap. XIII. VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 67 



breeding-season, and the diversity of the means for 

 producing such sounds, are highly remarkable. We 

 thus gain a high idea of their importance for sexual 

 purposes, and are reminded of the same conclusion with 

 respect to insects. It is not difficult to imagine the steps 

 by which the notes of a bird, primarily used as a mere 

 call or for some' otlier purpose, might have been im- 

 proved into a ruelodious love-song. This is somewhat 

 more difficult in the case of the modified feathers, by 

 which the drumming, whistling, or roaring noises are 

 produced. But we have seen that some birds during 

 . their courtship flutter, shake, or rattle their unmodified 

 feathers together ; and if the females were led to select 

 the best perl'ormers, the males which possessed the 

 strongest or thickest, or most attenuated feathers, situ- 

 ated on any part of the body, would be the most 

 successful ; and thus by slow degrees the feathers might 

 be modified to almost any extent. The females, of 

 course, would not notice each slisfht successive alteration 

 in shape, but only the sounds thus produced. It is a 

 curious fact that in the same cla?s of animals, sounds 

 so different as the drumming of the snipe's tail, the 

 tapping of the woodpecker's beak, the harsh trumpet- 

 like cry of certain water-fowl, the cooing of the turtle- 

 dove, and tlie song of the nightingale, should all be 

 pleasing to the females of the several species. But 

 we must not judge the tastes of distinct species by a 

 uniform standard ; nor must we judge by the standard 

 of man's taste. Even with man, we should remember 

 what discordant noises, the beatin<2: of tom-toms and 

 the shrill notes of reeds, please tlie ears of savages. 

 Sir S. Baker remarks,^^ that "as the stomach of the 

 " Arab prefers the raw meat and reeking liver taken 



^" ' The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,' 1867, p. 203. 



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