THE GENESIS OF BIRD-SONG. 



BIRD-SONG is one of the most charming 

 mysteries in nature; it has no counter- 

 part in art. I have at times fancied there 

 was some analogy between it and the art of 

 poetry, but there is none, in fact. The genesis 

 of poetry is intellectual and psychal; the 

 genesis of bird-song is purely physical. Even 

 the human voice, in song, oratory, and his- 

 trionic declamation, borrows much of its best 

 value from the character, mental and psychal, 

 of the individual vocalizer. 



The song apparatus of the bird is, perhaps, 

 no more a machine than that of the man; 

 but the controlling force, the motor, of the 

 former is mechanical, whilst that of the latter 

 is intellectual to a large degree. Of course I 

 do not mean to say that birds sing involun- 

 tarily or without emotion of a certain sort, 

 nor would I be understood as representing 

 the song organ of any oscine to be absolutely 

 unadjustable, which would be contrary to 

 the first law of evolution, the natural im- 

 pulse of progression from lower to higher 

 expression. It would seem that conscious 

 effort to improve, such as man is capable of, 

 works both evil and good in the way of devel- 

 oping the vocal organs, whilst the uncon- 

 scious practice indulged by the birds never 

 injures the voice, and if it improves it, the 

 result comes about by the slow process of 

 hereditary accumulation. Thus, no doubt, 

 the wonderful voice power of our song-birds 

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