248 In Touch with Nature. 



to do with the bird's ordinary occupations. It is 

 a breaking in upon them, just as we who labor all 

 love to do, lay aside our tools and take up the 

 fiddle and the bow. I do not propose to trifle 

 with the subject, but give honest expression to my 

 convictions in this matter. So long as we persist 

 in considering ourselves as something widely dif- 

 ferent and wholly set apart from the animal crea- 

 tion, birds and all other forms of life will be a 

 profound mystery to us, and whatsoever they do, 

 beyond our powers of interpretation ; but let it 

 dawn upon us that they are largely governed by 

 the same laws, actuated by the same motives, the 

 same causes urging them to do and dare, then 

 the differences between the various utterances of 

 a bird will become evident, and we will go away 

 convinced that birds, like mankind, sing for pleas- 

 ure and talk from necessity. 



It has been shown conclusively by philosophical 

 naturalists that the songs of birds have a close 

 association with the pairing of birds, and all that 

 belongs to the continuance of the race. Here we 

 are brought, I doubt not, face to face with the 

 question of the origin of song, which is not that 



