SINGING-BIRDS. 31 



by civilized man. Savages and barbarians, who are the 

 principal inhabitants of hot countries, are seldom ob- 

 servant of the songs or habits of birds. A musician of 

 the feathered race, no less than a human singer, must 

 have an appreciating audience or his powers could not 

 be made known to the world. But even with the same 

 audience, the tropical birds would probably be less es- 

 teemed than those of equal merit in our latitudes, for 

 amid the stridulous and deafening sounds from insects 

 in warm climates the notes of birds are scarcely audible. 

 Probably, however, the comparative number of singing- 

 birds is greater in the temperate zone, where there are 

 more of those species that build low, and live in the 

 shrubbery, which the singing-birds chiefly frequent. In 

 warm climates the birds are obliged to live in trees, and 

 the vegetation of the surface of the ground will not sup- 

 port the Finches and Buntings, which are the chief sing- 

 ers of the ]N'orth. 



