CHAPTER VI 

 SONGS WITHOUT WORDS 



Anatomy shows us that the lower larynx, the 

 syrinx or voice organ of singing birds, is the most 

 marvelous musical instrument known, not excepting 

 the prima donna'' s throat; that this organ, which is 

 of the simplest form in birds of the lower orders, 

 became more and more intricately complex the more 

 highly birds developed, for song is of comparatively 

 late achievement in their evolution ; that the music 

 which enchants us comes from where the bronchial 

 tubes fork into the upper lungs; that a modulating 

 apparatus, consisting of various kinds and numbers 

 of bony half rings and muscles around the tubes and 

 differing greatly with the different species, have 

 much to do with a bird's scientific classification; 

 that, by the automatic working of these muscles, 

 musical messages of changeable tone and increased 

 or diminished volume of sound may be sent at will 

 through the tracheal sounding pipe — all this and 

 vastly more that is anatomical might be told ; and 

 yet a deaf person, who has never heard a bird sing, 

 could form absolutely no idea of its music. 



" You cannot with a scalpel find the poet's soul, 

 Nor yet the wild bird's song." 



Or, let the technical musician, whose trained ear 

 catches the most delicate gradations of tone, attempt 

 to write down, for example, the little house wren's 



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