244 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



once issued an order to have them greased ; but it 

 was revoked on the petition of the carters, who 

 stated that the oxen liked the sound, and would not 

 draw without its music."* Even fish, upon better 

 authority than the old story of Amphion and the 

 dolphin, are said to have shown signs of being af- 

 fected by music ; and seals, we are told, have crowd- 

 ed to hear a violin. f " Seals," says Valerius Flac- 

 cus, " delight in song," which Sir Walter Scott has 

 rendered, 



" Rude Heiskar's seals, through surges dark, 

 Will long pursue the minstrel's bark." 



In Germany they take the shad (Alosa clupea, MER- 

 KET) by means of nets, to which bows of wood, 

 hung with a number of little bells, are attached in 

 such a manner as to chime in harmony when the 

 nets are moved. The shad, when once attracted by 

 the sound, will not attempt to escape while the 

 bells continue to ring. ^Elian says the shad is al- 

 lured by castanets : and so delicate is the ear of this 

 fish reported to be, that the sound of thunder terri- 

 fies them to death, and numbers are annually found 

 thus killed on the Rhine and the Moselle. 



Numerous other instances of a similar kind are 

 recorded, upon authority far from being destitute of 

 respectability, though they may somewhat startle 

 the faith of the incredulous. An officer, confined 

 in the Bastile at Paris, begged the governor to per- 

 mit him the use of his lute, to soften his confine- 

 ment by the harmonies of his instrument. At the 

 end of a few days this modern Orpheus, playing on 

 his lute, was greatly astonished to see frisking out 

 of their holes great numbers of mice, and descend- 

 ing from their woven habitations crowds of spiders, 

 which formed a circle about him while he contin- 



* Letters from Spain. 



t Laing's Voyage to Spitsbergen. 



