THE SONG OF BIRDS 



IT is interesting to remember, when all the land is full of 

 song, that for many millions of years there was no living 

 voice upon the earth. Living creatures in abundance, but 

 all voiceless such was the state of things until the time of 

 the Coal Measures, when amphibians appeared, presumably 

 with vocal cords as frogs and toads have to-day. It is true 

 that long before that there were insects, some of which were 

 perhaps able to chirp and hum as crickets and bees do now, 

 but this is rather instrumental than vocal sound-production. 

 In any case, apart from insects, there was for millions of 

 years no sound to break the silence of Nature save the 

 inanimate noises of the waves and the cataract, the thunder 

 and the wind. 



The invention of speech seems to have been due to the 

 amphibians, but they did not make much of it, and few of 

 their successors, the reptiles, made more. The snakes, for 

 instance, have no word but a hiss, and most of the reptiles 

 make no sound at all. Among birds, however, as every one 

 knows, vocal expression attains to a remarkable degree of 

 evolution, surpassed by man only, who has informed it with 

 reason. To keep our ideas clear, it must be recognised that 

 many birds and mammals have definite words, indicative of 

 particular things or expressive of definite emotions ; but song 

 and language mean something more. In language, of which 

 man seems to have a monopoly, there must be, if it is worthy 

 of the name, the expression of a judgment a sentence, 

 however simple. In song there is rhythmic, modulated 



