CHAPTER XIII. 
THE MEANING OF MUSIC AMONG BIRDS. 
Music now among birds has primarily in it the 
purpose of charming, and represents, perhaps, the 
highest feature of their progress. 
If it were not for its connection with other court- 
ing tactics it ought to end the story of the birds in- 
stead of coming near its middle. With them it is the 
capstone of the great pyramid of the art of pleasing, 
and man only at the tip of the other twig of develop- 
ment has vied with his friend in feathers in expressing 
the refinements of the emotions in vocal melody. It 
is doubtless as recent in the progress of his culture as 
it is in theirs, for in birds battle, and perhaps even 
color and “ frills,’ may have been inherited from 
the reptiles. They are there now at any rate, and 
odor we have seen was doubtless rampant long be- 
fore the bird. Special weapons came in early after 
all these, and perhaps antics as now seen are as old as, 
at least, or older than, the wing. But song must have 
waited long upon the feather. The reptiles doubtless 
groaned and roared, and the frogs trilled monoto- 
nously, but there were no modulations that were in 
any way melodious till the dawn of the avian syrinx. 
is 
