134 



WOOD NOTES WILD. 



Harmonic Affinities in Bird Music. — Contin. 



knowledge of the musical scale; and a San Francisco naturalist ^ is at 

 present engaged upon a work in which he hopes to show that the human 

 ear posesses in this respect merely a more highly developed form of the 

 common vertebrate sensibility. When we reflect upon the purely physi- 

 cal and physiological basis, which, as Helmholtz has taught us, underlies 

 the musical intervals and the distinctions of harmony and discord, there 

 is certainly no reason why they should not be perceived by all the higher 

 animals alike, in a greater or less degree." — Allen, G. : .^Esthetic Feeling in 

 Birds. (Pop. Sci. Mo., vol. xvii., September, 1880, pp. 65S-6&4.) 



Genesis of Bird Song. (See p. 5.) 



" From all we can gather it appears most probable that in its present 

 form our song-bird proper — our bird with a song to sing — is not much 

 older than man ; that he found his song just in time to gladden the ears of 

 God's last and greatest creation ; that he struggled through countless ages 

 and awful changes in order to fit himself for our entertainment.^ Think 



1 Probably Mr. Xenos Clark, who was at one time on the Pacific Coast. 



2 The Rev. Charles Kingsley credits the birds with instruction as well 

 as entertainment. In his opinion they set the key-note for the songs 

 of the old poets ; the medieval bards borrowed liberally from the birds 

 (A Charm of Birds, Eraser's Mag., vol. Ixxv., June, 1867, p. 802). 



Both Gardiner and Kingsley were anticipated, however, by a nameless 

 magaziner ■. — 



" We have alluded to the rapid passages in the song of birds, the 

 succession of soft and loud sounds, the contrast between quick and §low 

 notes. Is it quite improbable that these, and perhaps other peculiarities 

 in their melodic exertions, may have furnished hints for imitation "? or 

 must we produce vouchers of crotchets and quavers ■? Let the following 

 bars of a favorite waltz, of German composition, be played on the 

 flageolet : — 



^ 



t^r i r i r &• 



m^^^^M^ 



And again the following : — 





f I f r f i r f ;sg 



r f f i r' 



^ 



f f f ,f f r 



