THE MOTIF OF BIRD-SONG. 



•• And some are hearing, eagerly, the wild, 

 Thrilling liquidity of dewy piping."— Keats. 



What may be called the romance of bird- 

 song has been the common property of poets 

 and enthusiastic descriptive writers of prose 

 from the time that the Cadmean contagion of 

 letters slipped into the life of man. Indeed, 

 ever since the old Hebrew lyrist heard the 

 voice of the turtle in his land, there has been 

 a human echo to every trill and warble flung 

 out of bush and bou^h all round the vernal 

 circle of the sarth. It has been well said by 

 one of our ablest ornithologists. Dr. Coues, 

 ^hat man and bird are the two animals that 

 sing and enjoy song. This love of sweet 

 sounds has formed between these widely dif- 

 ferent and extremely specialized beings a 

 golden cord of sympathy, which has been 

 kept sweetly vibrating for ages with inter- 

 change of melodious mouthings. 



I have often thought that it tvould be a 

 most welcome book, if some competent per- 

 son should construct a carefully arranged 

 anthology of the bird-lyrics worthy of note 

 written in English since the days of Chaucer ; 

 or better still, of all the best bird-songs of 

 every language from the beginning of time. 

 Such a work would disclose a singular and 

 beautiful phase of human history— a phase 

 from which the literary student might gather 

 rich treasure, and out of which the scientist 

 might distil the essence of precious truths. 

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