100 SYLVAN SECRETS. 



tongue and the opening of the trachea. In 

 every case where a bird approaches the mar- 

 gin of song-making it will be found to possess 

 a mouth arrangement superior to that of birds 

 which have no tendency toward song. Even 

 the mouth and tongue of the golden- winged 

 woodpecker are verging in the direction of 

 the true development; its bill is growing 

 slender and weak, is taking on the song-bird 

 curve, and the posterior part of the tongue is 

 being modified. Indeed, Colaptes auratus is 

 much nearer the true singing bird's estate 

 than any rook, no matter how beautifully de- 

 veloped its syiinx, but it is not nearer the 

 possession of the greatest vocal power, the 

 power of articulate expression. 



Such is a hasty glimpse of the genesis of 

 bird-song, a subject which might well have a 

 volume devoted to it ; for so long as Keat's 

 ode to a nightingale and Shelley's to a sky-lark 

 shall exist, no one dare say that bird-song is 

 not worthy of the highest attention. 



