on 
34 BIRD-SONGS. 
and the hylas! If these cold-blooded, low-lived 
creatures, after sleeping all winter in the mud,! 
are free to make so much use of their voices, 
surely a bird of the air may sing his unobtrusive 
song without being cross-examined concerning 
the purpose of it. Why do the mice sing, and 
the monkeys, and the woodchucks? Indeed, 
sir, — if one may be so bold, — why do you sing, 
yourself ?” 
This matter - of - fact Darwinism need not 
frighten us. It will do us no harm to remember, 
now and then, “the hole of the pit whence we 
were digged ;” and besides, as far as any rela- 
tionship between us and the birds is concerned, 
it is doubtful whether we are the party to com- 
plain. 
But avoiding “ genealogies and contentions,” 
and taking up the question with which we be- 
gan, we may safely say that birds sing, some- 
times to gratify an innate love for sweet sounds ; 
sometimes to win a mate, or to tell their love 
to a mate already won; sometimes as practice, 
with a view to self-improvement ; and some- 
times for no better reason than the poet’s, — “I 
do but sing because I must.” In general, they 
1 There is no Historic-Genealogical Society among the birds, 
and the robin is not aware that his own remote ancestors were rep- 
tiles. If he were, he would hardly speak so disrespectfully of 
these batrachians. 
