BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 37 



abouts will be tolerated in its vicinity. If, while one is 

 roaring, there should come rumbling along on the wind the 

 voice of another, the vocal duet is prolonged ; but when 

 the rites have been duly performed, "matin-song and 

 vespers eke," they go about the business of the day or the 

 night, as the case may be, without further ado. 



So, again, in the ferocious old European fighting-days, 

 warriors were perpetually singing— not love songs, for these 

 were delegated to professionals and mercenaries, but war- 

 chaunts. Heroes of the Berserker and hardy Norseman type 

 got up and sang whenever they were excited, as naturally as 

 blackbirds do, but their singing must have been much more 

 like the lion's than the bird's. Savage races at the present 

 day, whenever they are unamiably inclined, fall to "singing" 

 war-songs, which they improvise, music and words alike ; 

 and to our ears their compositions are hideous. So, no 

 doubt, the blackbird would think the lion's, and the lion 

 think the blackbird's. Birds and beasts, no doubt, differ as 

 much in ear as they do in voice. But reverse their sizes, 

 and see the result. The emu bellows and booms ; there 

 are mice that "sing" quite prettily. If the lion were the 

 size of a blackbird, he would, perhaps, as Bottom said, "roar 

 you as gently as any sucking-dove : roar you as 'twere any 

 nio;-htinp"ale." 



