Bird Music in South America. 153 



clouds ; the tinkling bell is somewhere in the air, 

 suspended on nothing; the invisible human crea- 

 tures that whistle, and hum airs, and whisper to 

 one another, and clap their hands and laugh, are 

 not bound, like ourselves, to earth, but float hither 

 and thither as they list. 



Something of this aerial character is acquired by 

 other sounds, even by the most terrestrial, when 

 heard at a distance in a quiet atmosphere. And 

 some of our finer sounds, as those of the flute and 

 bugle and flageolet, and some others, when heard 

 faintly in the open air, have the airy character of 

 bird notes ; with this difference, that they are dim 

 and indistinct to the sense, while the bird's note, 

 although so airy, is of all sounds the most distinct. 



Mr. John Burroughes, in his excellent Impressions 

 of some British Song Birds, has said, that many of 

 the American songsters are shy wood-birds, seldom 

 seen or heard near the habitations of man, while 

 nearly all the British birds are semi-domesticated, 

 and sing in gardens and orchards ; that this fact, 

 in connection with their more soft and plaintive 

 voices, made American song birds seem less to 

 the European traveller than his own. This state- 

 ment would hold good, and even gain in force, if for 

 North America we should substitute the hot or 

 larger part of South America, or of the Neotropical 

 region, which comprises the whole of America 

 south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Throughout 

 the tropical and subtropical portions of this region, 



