THE SONGS OF BIRDS 



impossible. Man's vocal organs, at least those of the 

 mouth, are made of quite different material — the 

 palate and soft and flexible lips and tongue — 

 while the bird has hard and horny tongue and bill. 

 The singing-organs of the live bird do not differ very 

 much from those of the artificial bird which you 

 wind up, and which sings and throbs much like the 

 real thing. The music-box of the bird is called the 

 syrinx, and is composed of hard cartilaginous rings 

 which do not seem to be much more susceptible of 

 fatigue and wear than a tin whistle. The bird's song 

 repeated a thousand or more times a day for months 

 does not seem to affect it in the least. All singing 

 birds, and all birds with loud calls, have this ana- 

 tomical contrivance in the trachea called the syrinx. 



Our turkey buzzard has no voice because it has 

 no syrinx. Maybe Nature did not dare trust the 

 uncleanly glutton to speak. The hawks and the 

 eagles she seems more liberal with because theirs 

 is a nobler type of savagery. And yet, not to be too 

 sure about Nature's motives, there is the European 

 stork, a rather noble bird, which has no voice. 

 It is not easy to fathom Nature's inconsistencies. 

 See what a voice she has given to the frogs, while 

 she has given none to the turtles ! Behold the noisy 

 crickets and grasshoppers and the silent moths and 

 butterflies, the whistling marmot and the silent 

 skunks and porcupines! 



As I sat on my porch this chilly July morning 



91 



