INTRODUCTION. 



greatly enlarged vision he has epitomized the mu-ie of 

 X;it ure as that must appeal to all of us else it cannot appeal 

 at all. The mountain reveals the boundless hori/.on of a 

 different world of which we have scarcely dreamed or 

 thought, a world to which the little bird on viewless wing 

 has ever sung, shall ever sing. His music is his language, 

 for us it is interpretative of life's experience; it is not a thing 

 which we may cast aside as a child would discard hi- toy 

 when it ceases to amuse. 



Hence, I believe the birds with their music are the revela- 

 tion of a greater world, one with just such a boundless 

 horizon as that which we view from the mountain's summit 

 marvelling that it is indeed the same narrow world we live 

 in. 



It is not possible to listen to the melody of the Song Spar- 

 row in early March without realizing for the time being that 

 we are released from the cold clutch of winter and set 

 down in the comfortable lap of spring. What matters it 

 if the squalling interruptions of the Blue Jay disturb that 

 delightful impression. A discordant note somewhere is a 

 phase of life; not all the singers are divine, in fact, the world 

 of music if it is true to life must record a due proportion of 

 flippant jest, idle chatter, squawking disagreement, rag- 

 time frivolity, mooning transcendentalism, and so on. A 

 world of singing birds devoid of humor would be extremely 

 dull ; without something plainly, humanly nonsensical in it 

 now and then it must be insufferably tedious. One would 

 not dare to assume that naught of innocent jollity entered 

 into the life of the bird. 



But of serene, exultant melody in the music of the birds 

 there is plenty; the plainest evidence of it is in the songs of 

 the Thrushes, and we have the convincing proof that their 

 music is built upon definite, primitive scales scales which 

 the birds used aeons of years before man did. This book is 

 not the proper medium in which to set forth evolutionary 

 theories of bird-song, but I must emphatically repeat that 

 the bird sings first for love of music, and second for love of 

 the lady. I am not alone in my theory of the inherent 

 musical nature of song-birds, for Mr. ( 'hauncey J. Hawkins 

 writes in The Auk: "There must be something within the 

 vi 



