May 
nervous glance of the eye, or its agony of fear. 
This intensity of life is a thousand-fold more 
potent than brilliant coloring in eliciting man’s 
sympathetic regard, and is the source of almost 
all of its human analogies. 
A bird apparently finds itself unable to sing 
when in actual contact with the ground. It 
seems difficult to explain the fact. Perhaps, 
just as the earth is the great conductor of elec- 
tricity, so it similarly draws off the musical cur- 
rent or fluid, and the bird must needs insulate 
itself by mounting a little distance, however 
slight, in order to accumulate its musical energy. 
And only in rare instances do they sing on the 
wing, the most notable exception being the 
European skylark, which is the ideal of an ec- 
static songster in pouring forth his melody as he 
mounts to an almost invisible height, and shed- 
ding still a radiance of sound 
‘* From his watch-tower in the skies,” 
—the paragon of all the poets. Our own bobo- 
link also overflows in a half-intoxicated song as 
he rollicks in the air, and occasionally one 
hears the strain of the oriole as he dashes 
through the trees. But commonly when flying 
one hears from them only the call-note, perhaps 
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