6 WOOD NOTES WILD. 



sound ; and the most natural combination of tones in it 

 is the common chord, consisting of three tones, one, three, 

 and five, forming two intervals, a major third and a minor 

 third, which together make a fifth. These three tones are 

 more readily appreciated by the uneducated ear than the 

 regular order of tones in the scale. Players on the old- 

 fashioned keyless bugles could play them, with their 

 octaves perhaps, and nothing else; and boys can play 

 them on long dry milk-weed stalks. I have been sur- 

 prised at the readiness with which dull-eared boys learn 

 to tune the strings of a violin, which are the interval of 

 a fifth apart, while they are slow to determine the inter- 

 vening tones. One and five of the scale, then, have the 

 strongest affinity, the one for the other, of any two tones 

 in it. 



Now, after the "flight of ages," when the birds had 

 emerged from the state of monstrosity, each raw singer 

 having chanted continuously his individual tonic, there 

 came a time when they must take a long step forward 

 and enter the world of song. In the vast multitude of 

 feathered creatures there must have been an endless 

 variety of forms and sizes, and a proportionate variety 

 in the pitch and quality of their voices. Day to day, 

 year to year, each bird had heard his fellows squall, 

 squawk, screech, or scream their individual tones, till 

 in due time he detected here and there in the tremen- 

 dous chorus certain tones that had a special affinity for 

 his own. This affinity, strengthened by endless repeti- 

 tions, at last made an exchange of tones natural and easy. 

 Suppose there were two leading performers, the key of 



