APPENDIX. 133 



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



tion and sleep, . . . whereas no such effect can be left from the modulation 

 of birds, because those modulations, not being equally imitable by us, 

 cannot affect our internal faculties in the same degree." — Gassendi, P. , in 

 Vita Peireskii. 



Harmonic Affinities in Bird Music. (See p. 6.) 



For an interesting article on harmonic affinities as per- 

 ceived and selected by the birds, the reader is referred 

 to the late Mr. Xenos Clark's " Animal Music, its Nature 

 and Origin " (American Naturalist, vol. xiii., April, 1879, 

 pp. 209-223.) 



"The perfect fifths, fourths, thirds, and octaves," he 

 writes, "have a marked predominance, their proportion 

 of the whole number being respectively twenty-seven 

 per cent, twenty-five per cent, twenty-six per cent, and 

 nine per cent, or taken all four together, eighty-seven 

 per cent, as against thirteen per cent of the remaining 

 five intervals." 



Of course the notations on which such calculations are 

 based must be correct or nothing is proven. A like cal- 

 culation based on an equal number of the author's nota- 

 tions, selected from the songs of the choicer vocalists, 

 would bring the percentage perhaps still higher. 



Dr. Weber, the organist, before quoted, says, "The 

 intervals we observe most in the voices of animals are 

 fifths, octaves, and thirds, and also fourths and sixths." 



" The cases of the starling, the piping bullfinch, and the mocking-bird, 

 which can be taught to whistle a tune, show the same power still more 

 highly developed. These instances prove not merely susceptibility to mu- 

 sical sounds, but also a capacity for distinguishing the harmonic intervals. 

 It is stated that some birds, even in the wild state, display considerable 



