132 WOOD NOTES WILD. 



Structure of Melody. Human and Animal Music. — Contin. 



" The harmonic aiBnities of notes are clearly perceived and selected by 

 most singing-birds. Thus among the commonest intervals are the fifth 

 and fourth, both of which are marked by the presence of a common partial 

 tone. The octave, though a more closely related interval than either of 

 these, appears less frequently than they do. The twelfth, too, which 

 stands almost on a level with the octave in point of harmonic affinity, is 

 to be met with occasionally. 



" As to key, or tonality, birds may be said to recognize and embody 

 this element of human melody, in so far as their song naturally falls in a 

 certain key, and is always executed in one and the same key. On the 

 other hand, these feathered musicians seem to have little or no notion of 

 setting out from and returning to one particular note. They are wont to 

 break off in the most capricious way at any point in their melody without 

 the least sense of incongruity. Thus it cannot be said that birds show any 

 clear appreciation of tonality. And this is not to be wondered at, seeing 

 that such a perception presupposes considerable intellectual power, and that 

 even in the case of human music the principle of tonality only becomes 

 prominent when the art has reached a certain stage of development." — 

 Sully, James: Animal Music. (Comhill Mag., vol. xl., Nov., 1879, p. 605.) 



" And yet is n't it strange that bird music is not tiresome? My memory 

 recalls for me parts of California where the meadow lark's ' silver whistle ' 

 (our Eastern fellow gives no idea of it) is almost the only bird-song heard 

 the year round ; and yet, though it is heard superabundantly, 't is never a 

 whit less fresh and charming than at first. All this gives me a feeling 

 that there is something more than a difference of degree between human 

 and bird music. What is the difference ? To my thought, bird melody 

 resembles the Swiss mountaineer's yodle on his horn, which one hears the 

 year round with delight, while if he played the 'Star-Spangled Banner' 

 nightly we would begin cursing him at the end of a month. 'Tis indefi- 

 nite, unspecialized music, not narrowed to the expression of a specific sen- 

 timent. Probably you will remind me that there is a deeper problem yet : 

 what do the birds themselves think of it ? What does Mrs. Robin think 

 when at summer's end she finds Mr. Robin singing the same song as at 

 summer's beginning, or nearly the same ? Can you find some open-minded 

 robin down in Franklin, ere long, and let me know the truth of it, accord- 

 ing to his view ? " — Clark, Xenos, in a letter to the author, dated Sept. 7, 1888, 

 Monterey, Berkshire County, Mass. 



" To vocal and instrumental music he preferred that of birds ; not from 

 being incapable of finding delight in the others also, but because human 

 music leaves in the mind a continual agitation which disturbs both atten- 



