BIEDS, SONGS OF. 



85 



this scheme. In 1871 he resigned the post 

 of Chancellor. He was sent as ambassador 

 to London and afterward to Paris, but at- 

 tempted to take no further leading part in 

 political affairs, and soon retired into private 

 life. In his villa at Altenburg he amused him- 

 self with literary and artistic occupations, for 

 which he had early developed a taste. In the 

 beginning of his career he had composed a 

 collection of " Musical Trifles," and written a 

 book of songs, besides other poems, and after 

 his retirement he occasionally published a re- 

 flective poem. He also wrote comprehensive 

 "Memoirs" of his life and political activity, 

 explaining and defending the ideas that he had 

 striven to carry out, in the future realization 

 of which he still believed. 



BIRDS, SONGS OF. Birds are the only creatures 

 that share with man the faculty of expressing 

 fine shades of feeling by the voice. There are 

 no dumb birds, and those that do not sing still 

 have some of the tones that form the language 

 of birds, such as notes of warning, cries of dis- 

 tress, calls to mate and young, and sounds that 

 render emotions both defiant and peaceful, and 

 are heard in their strifes and in their amours. 

 Most naturalists regard the song of birds as a 

 manifestation of the tender passion, and as an 

 accompaniment of nidification and incubation. 

 While this view may be in the main correct, it 

 must be borne in mind that birds have an in- 

 herent aptitude for song and take delight in the 

 exercise of this natural gift, and in caged birds 

 there is a spontaneous overflow of energy in 

 the use of this faculty the year round. 



That such minute creatures as many of the 

 best singing-birds should have such continuity 

 and volume of voice is a phenomenon that can 

 not be explained in a completely satisfactory 

 way, though the powerful mechanism of song 

 is to be accounted for in a measure on anatom- 

 ical grounds. In the first place, singing-birds 

 have a double larnyx, one at the top and the 

 other at the lower part of the trachea, and it 

 is the latter that is especially active in the pro- 

 duction of voice. This broncho- tracheal larynx 

 (or syrinx, as it is technically called) varies 

 somewhat in structure in different species of 

 birds; but the voice-production is mainly on 

 the principle of a reed instrument. The pitch 

 of the note depends on the tension of the sy- 

 ringeal membranes by muscles that are numer- 

 ous and powerful relatively, and also on the 

 length of the tracheal column of air. The tim- 

 bre of the tones depends on the harmonic over- 

 tones, and the sounds are modified by lingual 

 and pharyngeal movements. The immense va- 

 riety of tones is due also to the rotary and lat- 

 eral movements of the vocal apparatus (syrinx), 

 effected by several pairs of muscles, which regu- 

 late the tension of a fine membrane that acts 

 something like the reed in a clarionet. The 

 amazing continuousness of the song is explained 

 by the reserve supplies of air, as well as by the 

 economical use of breath. Birds have air-sacs 

 in the neck, chest, and abdomen nine in all 



which communicate with the bronchial tubes, 

 and even the feathers and bones contain air. The 

 tracheal rings are complete, numerous, strong, 

 and very elastic. The world-renowned philo- 

 mel has a trachea only about one inch and a 

 half long, which would not admit the passage 

 of anything larger than an ordinary knitting- 

 needle, and yet from this little tube issue those 

 clear and penetrating tones which can be heard 

 on a still night for nearly a mile. Still, with 

 all these anatomical facts in view, whoever has 

 listened to the unbroken tumult of notes of the 

 nightingale in full song in his native bowers, 

 must have realized that there is something yet 

 to be learned in instrumental acoustics. 



The comparative merit of a bird's vocal per- 

 formances depends on the following points : 

 compass, variety, continuity, volume and quali- 

 ty of tone, including purity, gayness, plaintive- 

 ness, and general power of execution. The 

 skylark, for instance, has a relatively small 

 compass of voice, and often fails in purity of 

 tone ; but within its limited range it has almost 

 incomparable power of execution, and possesses 

 a variety of combinations of notes and a gayety 

 of song seldom equaled. The Virginia cardi- 

 nal has a mellow quality of tone which is sur- 

 passed only by the richest voices ; but it has 

 such a limited variety of notes that it can only 

 be assigned an inferior rank as a songster. The 

 American wood-thrush, although it possesses 

 but a small variety of notes, has a quality of 

 tone that is so highly musical as to place it 

 among the finest singers. 



It is a rule, with few exceptions, that large 

 birds do not sing, and that the famous songsters 

 are not only small but have plain plumage. 

 Nature seems to have bestowed on the male 

 bird exclusively powers of song as well as finer 

 plumage. Occasionally a female essays the 

 musical role of the male, but always with in- 

 ferior success. In rare instances a female will 

 persist in her newly assumed role, and by dint 

 of practice attain to something like the song of 

 the male. In general it may be said that the 

 young bird inherits an aptitude for song from 

 its father. It pays attention to him, to the ex- 

 clusion of the notes of all other birds, and it 

 learns its lesson with astonishing rapidity, so 

 that if it be separated from its parent a few 

 weeks after it is hatched, it still retains and 

 at some future time faithfully repeats the song 

 that it heard while a nestling. So largely is 

 this an imitative performance, however, that 

 if the nestling be allowed to hear only the song 

 of another bird instead of that of its parent, it 

 will learn a song foreign to its species, and in 

 some cases will even repeat with fidelity the 

 tune of a bird-organ instead of the native lay of 

 its kind. 



The song of birds is never a gift outright, 

 but is gradually developed and finally perfected 

 by long and patient practice. The first essays 

 of the young bird are very imperfect, but it per- 

 severes until it can render the paternal strains 

 with full effect. The song is again lost during 



