BIRD MUSIC 141 



ami masses of sound ; the piano is a universal favourite, 

 and the more tlumder you get out of it the better it is 

 liked. 



In this as in other thin.f^s our gain is our loss; if in 

 human music the sweetest, most delicate instrumental 

 sounds cease to please, or even to be tolerable, on account 

 of their small volume, how could the very best of the 

 natural music of birds delight us — the small exquisite 

 strains emitted by the wagtails and pipits, the whcatear 

 and whinchat, the willow wren and wood wren, the 

 linnet and reed warbler? The very most that can be 

 said of such minute melodies is that, like the little gurgling 

 and lisping sounds of a pebbly streamlet and of wind in 

 leaves and the patter of rain, it is soothing. 



Another cause of indifference is that for some persons 

 the sounds are without expression. 



We know that when the occasions of past happiness, 

 and the fact of the happiness itself, have been forgotten 

 something yet remains to us — a vague, pleasurable 

 emotion which may be evoked by any scene, or object, 

 or melody, or phrase, or any sight or sound in Nature 

 once associated with such happiness. It is this halo, 

 this borrowed colour of a thing, which gives tlie ex- 

 pression. Those who say that they find an indefinable 

 charm or beauty in any sight or sound do not as a rule" 

 know that it is not a quality of the thing itself w-hich 

 moves them, tliat their pleasure is almost wholly due 

 to association, and that in this case they "receive but 

 what they give." 



An instance of this charm which any natural object 



