BIED MUSIC IN SOUTH AMERICA 155 



To finish with quotations, the following sensible 

 passage from Wallace's Amazon and Rio Negro 

 should help us greatly in getting rid of an ancient 

 error : ' ' We are inclined to think that the general 

 statement, that the birds of the tropics have a 

 deficiency of song proportionate to their brilliancy 

 of plumage, requires to be modified. Many of the 

 brilliant birds of the tropics belong to families or 

 groups which have no song; but our most bril- 

 liantly-colored birds, as the goldfinch and canary, 

 are not less musical, and there are many beautiful 

 little birds here which are equally so. We heard 

 notes resembling those of the blackbird and robin, 

 and one bird gave forth three or four sweet plain- 

 tive notes that particularly attracted our atten- 

 tion; while many have peculiar cries, in which 

 words may be traced by the fanciful, and which 

 in the stillness of the forest have a very pleasing 

 effect." 



To return, before concluding, to Azara 's remark 

 about a choir of birds selected in Paraguay. It 

 seems to me that when the best singers of any two 

 districts have been compared and a verdict ar- 

 rived at, something more remains to be said. The 

 dulcet strains of a few of the most highly-esteemed 

 songsters contribute only a part, by no means the 

 largest part, of the pleasure we receive from the 

 bird sounds of any district. All natural sounds 

 produce agreeable sensations in the healthy: the 

 patter of rain on the forest leaves, the murmur of 

 the wind, the lowing of kine, the dash of waves on 



