4 o8 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



poetry. In fables, from the time of ^Esop downwards, they 

 often supply the principal characters. Sterne has immortalized 

 the Starling, Shakespeare and Shelley the Sky -Lark, Poe and 

 Dickens the Raven, Aristophanes and Thoreau the Frog. Other 

 examples are scattered broadcast through the literatures of the 

 world, and to name them would be a work of supererogation. 

 They often supply the motif for poetic efforts which express our 



V 



y 



Fig. 1285. Evolution of V. a, Egyptian hieroglyphic; 3, abbreviation of same; c, Phoenician form; d, final form. 



sympathy with Nature, and appeal more particularly to those 

 of us who are counted among the worshippers of " the great god 

 Pan ". The poem " Enchanted Tones ", by J. S. Welhaven, may 

 serve to illustrate this point, and it will be unknown to most 

 readers, for its native language is Norwegian. 



" A bird flew over the pine-clad hill 



Of the old, old legends singing, 

 And carried me out of life's beaten way 



Into dreamland's dim beginning. 

 I came to the moorland's secret spring 



Where fairies their thirst were slaking, 

 But ever those magical notes I heard 



'Midst the sighs that the breeze was making. 



" I stood in the beech-trees' silver shade 



As the sunset rays low slanted, 

 When glimmered the dew in the darkling glade 



And on hill shone like gold enchanted: 

 Then rustled the branches, a sound drew nigh 



As of wings that were rising and falling, 

 And ever from fell-top, and ever from tree 



Those magical flute-notes were calling. 



" Away in the woodland, far away, 



Is the songster's leafy dwelling, 

 From under the pine-trees, ever and aye, 



His melody's tide is swelling; 

 And though I never may reach his home, 



The song there is no forgetting, 

 That sounded sweet when eve's dewy wings 



Shut soft as the sun was setting." 



