MOTIF OF BIRD SONG. 75 



wandering way, as he flits about all alone. 

 His notes have an absent-minded ring, as if in 

 his diligence in food-hunting he were forget- 

 ting to put expression into his lay. Indeed, all 

 our birds use what we call their voices, just 

 as we use ours, for the purposes of expression 

 generally, and I am convinced that bird-song 

 proper, though oftenest the expression of 

 some phase of the tender passion, is not con- 

 fined to such expression. In a limited way 

 birds have their lyric and their dramatic 

 moods, their serious and their comic songs, 

 their recitative and their oratorical methods. 

 They are conscious of any especial superiority 

 of voice, just as they are keenly aware of any 

 particular brilliancy of colors on their plum 

 nge. It may be noticed, in passing, that here 

 :>^ain the birds and reptiles agree (many of 

 the latter giving evidence of a taste for 

 bright colors), while below man no other ani- 

 mals show much more than mere curiosity in 

 this regard. A parrot having gay feathers in 

 its wings and tail will display them to please 

 your eye in return for the favor of a nut or a 

 cracker, without ever having been taught to 

 do it. It is conscious of the fact that brilliant 

 colors are acceptable to the eye, and it in- 

 stinctively seeks to thank you, so to say, by 

 the delicate strut which uncovers all its hid- 

 den wealth of red, yellow, and blue. So the 

 sweetest sounds at its command are instinc- 

 tively flung out by the song-bird whenever it 

 feels especially happy. The migratory song- 

 birds, upon their spring arrival, are (no doubt) 

 delighted at finding themselves once more in 

 their breeding haunts, and immediately they 

 begin to give free vent to their feelings through 

 their melodious throats. It would be interest- 

 ing to know whether or not they do the same 



