146 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



in the songs of species which we love best for their 

 intrinsic beauty. The curious thing is that after 

 hearing a particular bird music in exceptionally favour- 

 able circumstances the hearer should become con- 

 vinced that this musician is the best. It may not be 

 at its best on the next occasion of hearing it, or ever 

 again, but the image of the intense pleasure it once 

 produced persists in his mind and the delusion remains. 



There are states of the atmosphere when distant 

 objects seem near and all Nature takes on a rare loveli- 

 ness which makes it like a new earth. There are states, 

 too, when bird sounds seem purer, brighter, more 

 resonant than at other times, in some instances surpris- 

 ing us with new and mysteriously beautiful qualities. 



After copious rains in summer there is often a tender 

 silveriness in the sunlit air, the effect of abundant 

 moisture ; and on such occasions we sometimes note a 

 difference in bird songs and cries, as if they, too, like 

 all else, had been washed and purified ; and just as we 

 inhale the new delicious air into our lungs we take the 

 new melody into our souls. In this case the exhilarat- 

 ing effect of the newly washed and brightened air and 

 sight of the blue sky after the depressing cloud has 

 passed undoubtedly count for much ; the responsive 

 physical change in us acts on the sense organs, and 

 they, too, appear to have been washed and made clean 

 and able to render truer and brighter images than 

 before. 



Then, too, we have the other cause, in which all 

 natural sounds, especially bird sounds, produce an 



