446 PHfLOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1773, 



few kinds of birds correspond with the intervals of our musical scale, of which 

 the cuckoo is a striking and known instance: much the greater part however of 

 such song, is not capable of musical notations. As a bird's pitch is higher than 

 that of any instrument, we are at a loss when we attempt to mark their notes in 

 musical characters, which we can so readily apply to such as we can distinguish 

 with precision. An unsurmountable difficulty is, that the intervals used by 

 birds are commonly so minute, that we cannot judge at all of them, from the 

 more gross intervals into which we divide our musical octave. . Thou'^h we 

 cannot attain the more delicate and imperceptible intervals in the song of birds 

 yet many of them are capable of whistling tunes with our more gross intervals, as 

 is well known by the common instances of piping bullfinches, and canary birds. 



This however arises from mere imitation of what they hear when taken early 

 from the nest; for if the instrument from which they learn is out of tune, they 

 as readily pipe the false, as the true notes of the composition. 



The next point of comparison to be made between our music and that of birds 

 is, whether they always sing in the same pitch. The first requisite to make such 

 sounds agreeable to the ear is, that all the birds should sing in the same key, 

 which he believes they do. Now, of all the musical tones which can be distin- 

 guished in birds, those of the cuckoo have been most attended to, which form a 

 flat 3d, not only by the observations of a harpsichord tuner, but likewise by those 

 of Kircher, in his Musurgia. Another proof of our musical inten^als being 

 originally borrowed from the song of birds, arises from most compositions being 

 in a flat third, where music is simple, and consists merely of melody. The oldest 

 tune Mr. B. heard, is a Welsh one, called Morvar Rhydland, which is composed 

 in a flat 3d; and if the music of the Turks and Chinese be examined in 

 Du Halde and Dr. Shaw, half of the airs are also in a flat 3d. The music of 

 2 centuries ago is likewise often in a flat 3d, though 99 compositions out of lOO 

 are now in the sharp 3d. The reason however of this alteration seems to be 

 very clear: the flat 3d is plaintive, and consequently adapted to simple move- 

 ments, such as may be expected in countries where music has not been long 

 cultivated. There is on the other hand a most striking brilliancy in the sharp 3d, 

 which is therefore proper for the amazing improvements in execution, which both 

 singers and players have arrived at within the last fifty years. When Corelli's 

 music was first published, our ablest violinists conceived that it was too difficult 

 to be performed; it is now however the first composition attempted by a scholar. 

 Every year also now produces greater and greater prodigies on other instruments, 

 in point of execution. 



IVIr. B. before observed, that by attending to a nightingale, as well as a robin 

 which was educated under him, he always found that the notes, reducible to our 

 intervals of the octave, were precisely the same; which is another proof that 



