BIRD MUSIC 145 



Then, too, we have the other cause, in which all 

 natural sounds, especially bird sounds, produce an 

 unusual effect owing to some special circumstances 

 or to a conjunction of favourable circumstances. It 

 is pure chance; the effect of to-day will never be 

 repeated; it has gone for ever, like the last beautiful 

 sunset we witnessed. But there will be many more 

 beautiful sunsets to gladden our sight. 



On looking on a meadow yellow with buttercups 

 I have seen one flower, or a single petal, far out, 

 perhaps, in the middle of the field, which instantly 

 caught and kept my sight — one flower amongst a 

 thousand thousand flowers, all alike. It was because 

 it had caught and reflected the light at such an angle 

 that its yellow enamelled surface shone and sparkled 

 like a piece of burnished gold. By some such chance 

 a song, a note, may reach the sense with a strange 

 beauty, glorified beyond all other sounds. 



One evening, walking in a park near Oxford, I 

 stopped to admire a hawthorn tree covered with its 

 fresh bloom. On a twig on the thorn a female chaffinch 

 was perched, silent and motionless, when presently 

 from the top of an elm tree close by its mate flew 

 down, describing a pretty wavering curve in its 

 descent, and arriving at the bush, and still flying, 

 circling round it, he emitted his song; not the usual 

 loud impetuous song he utters when perched; in 

 form or shape only it was the same, the notes issuing 

 in the same order, but lower, infinitely sweeter, 

 tender, etherealised. The song ended as the bird 

 dropped lightly by the side of its little mate. 



