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 

 147 



