PROFESSIONAL MUSICIANS 87 



fend by excess of ardour. This is often the error 

 of man-made music; it is certainly the tendency of 

 every over-developed art. The rich, full strains 

 of a wild bird's song has in its unstudied form noth- 

 ing of the laboured and unnatural. It is a song 

 from the heart, and to be really appreciated it must 

 be listened to only by the heart. 



There is reason to believe that the songs of birds 

 are often, if not always, heard with a certain emo- 

 tional understanding and sympathy by mankind 

 that all his complex science and philosophy can- 

 not explain. It is that mysterious sense of kinship 

 that exists between all mortal beings, that may for 

 long intervals be hidden by the passions and desires, 

 but responds to the holy strains of nature's music 

 from the throats of song birds. 



The poets of all races and of all times have sung 

 the praises of our feathered brother-musicians ; and 

 in their kindred art they have caught something of 

 that charm that is peculiar only to the singers of 

 the air. In his famous poem, To a Skylark, Shel- 

 ley has probably been most successful in the com- 

 munion of spirit between bird and man. He feels 

 the matchless eloquence of the song bird: 



"Chorus hymeneal, 



Or triumphal chaunt, 

 Matched with thine, would be all 



