142 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



the wheatear and whinchat, the willow wren and wood 

 wren, the linnet and reed warbler ? The very most 

 that can be said of such minute melodies is that, like 

 the little gurgling and lisping sounds of a pebbly- 

 streamlet and of wind in leaves and the patter of rain, 

 it is soothing. 



Another cause of indifference is that for some 

 persons the sounds are without expression. 



We know that when the occasions of past happiness, 

 and the fact of the happiness itself, have been forgotten 

 something yet remains to us — a vague, pleasurable 

 emotion which may be evoked by any scene, or object, 

 or melody, or phrase, or any sight or sound in Nature 

 once associated with such happiness. It is this halo, 

 this borrowed colour of a thing, which gives the 

 expression. Those who say that they find an indefin- 

 able charm or beauty in any sight or sound do not as a 

 rule know that it is not a quality of the thing itself 

 which moves them, that their pleasure is almost wholly 

 due to association, and that in this case they " receive 

 but what they give." 



An instance of this charm which any natural object 

 or sound may have for us is given by Gilbert White in 

 his description of an insect. " The shrilling of the 

 field cricket," he says, " though sharp and stridulous, 

 yet marvellously delights some hearers, filling their 

 minds with a train of summer ideas of everything that 

 is rural, verdurous, and joyous." There can be no 

 such " train of ideas " nor any vague sense of happiness 

 due to association caused by a bird's voice to one 



