GENESIS OF BIRD-SONG. 99 



they were in a garden, an Eden. Well might 

 the gush of song from a myriad swelling 

 throats, around, above, everywhere, suggest 

 that the very stars of morning were singing 

 together. 



I am inclined to the belief, from my own 

 observation, that many of our birds are still 

 in a transition state as regards the develop- 

 ment of their vocal organs. Take the wood- 

 peckers, a very unmusical family, and we 

 shall find the golden-wing giving some evi- 

 dence of acquiring a song, apace with his 

 departure from the true woodpecker habit. 

 The wood-thrush appears to lack a million 

 years or so of practice and hereditary devel- 

 opment to make him sing as well as the 

 mocking-bird, though his voice is as sweet as 

 a silver bell. The meadow-lark is very nearly 

 a singer, so is the bluebird, whilst the blue- 

 iay sloes at rare intervals render a low, mel- 

 low, incomparably pure flute passage, as if 

 whistling a snatch from a future score of its 

 own. The* tufted tit-mouse stops just short 

 of what one fancies would be a fine, clear lay, 

 and the cardinal grossbeak puts on all the 

 airs of an accomplished musician, without 

 being quite able to find a tune. 



Comparative anatomy bears out these sug- 

 gestions, showing that development of voice 

 , in birds runs quite along with the develop- 

 ment of the syrinx, whilst development of 

 song power keeps well up with and is depend- 

 ent on the correlative efficiency of the syrinx 

 and mouth arrangement. No crow, or black- 

 bird (American), or other songless oscine is 

 capable of learning to sing, nor can it be, un- 

 til a change shall have taken place, not in its 

 larynx or syrinx, but in the shape of the pos- 

 terior part of its mouth with relation to its 



