COURTSHIP. 91 



the Welsh pulpits." Nevertheless, our music 

 has been and doubtless often is inspired by that 

 of the birds. Thus, to quote Mr Warde Fowler 

 again, " the song of the 3 ellovv hammer is said to 

 have suggested the famous opening notes in 

 Beethoven's symphony in C minor." Again, he 

 tells us in the "andante of Beethoven's Pastoral 

 Symphony, the voices of birds are consciously 

 imitated." About the musical quality of these 

 notes he asks, " In what sense can we truly call 

 them music 1 what is their relation to our modern 

 musical art 1 " The singing apparatus of a bird, 

 he continues, " where it is perfect . . . is a 

 legitimate musical instrument, consisting of a 

 long tube and a tiny membrane which* vibrates 

 under the transmission of air from the lungs, and 

 it is played upon, or modulated, by the muscles 

 which tighten and relax like the lips of a per- 

 former on a reed instrument. The method of 

 producing the sound is, in fact, very much the 

 same in the bird and in a reed instrument, and 

 this may account for what I may call the reedy 

 quality of the voices of most birds." 



In the oboe "the sound is produced by the 

 reed affixed to the small end of the instrument, 

 which vibrates between the lips of the player as 

 he breathes air into it from his lungs." The 

 vibration of the reed is "communicated to the 

 column of air in the pipe of the oboe." The 

 result is a true musical sound. The sound is 

 produced in a similar way, by all songsters, and 

 on the same principle as in the oboe. " The 

 bird breathes from its lungs into two bronchial 

 tubes ; at the point where these two tubes com- 



