132 WOOD NOTES WILD. 
al 
Structure oF Metopy. Human and Animal Music. — Contin. 
“The harmonic affinities of notes are clearly perceived and selected by 
most singing-birds. Thus among the commonest intervals are the fifth 
and fourth, both of which are marked by the presence of a common partial 
tone. The octave, though a more closely related interval than either of 
these, appears less frequently than they do. The twelfth, too, which 
stands almost on a level with the octave in point of harmonic affinity, is 
to be met with occasionally. 
“As to key, or tonality, birds may be said to recognize and embody 
this element of human melody, in so far as their song naturally falls in a 
certain key, and is always executed in one and the same key. On the 
other hand, these feathered musicians seem to have little or no notion of 
setting out from and returning to one particular note. They are wont to 
break off in the most capricious way at any point in their melody without 
the least sense of incongruity. Thus it cannot be said that birds show any 
clear appreciation of tonality. And this is not to be wondered at, seeing 
that such a perception presupposes considerable intellectual power, and that 
even in the case of human music the principle of tonality only becomes 
prominent when the art has reached a certain stage of development.” — 
Sully, James: Animal Music. (Cornhill Mag., vol. xl., Nov., 1879, p. 605.) 
“And yet isn’t it strange that bird music is not tiresome? My memory 
recalls for me parts of California where the meadow lark’s ‘silver whistle’ 
(our Eastern fellow gives no idea of it) is almost the only bird-song heard 
the year round; and yet, though zt is heard superabundantly, ’tis never a 
whit less fresh and charming than at first. All this gives me a feeling 
that there is something more than a difference of degree between human 
and bird music. What is the difference? To my thought, bird melody 
resembles the Swiss mountaineer’s yodle on his horn, which one hears the 
year round with delight, while if he played the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ 
nightly we would begin cursing him at the end of « month. ’T is indefi- 
nite, unspecialized music, not narrowed to the expression of a specific sen- 
timent. Probably you will remind me that there is a deeper problem yet: 
what do the birds themselves think of it? What does Mrs. Robin think 
when at summer’s end she finds Mr. Robin singing the same song as at 
summer’s beginning, or nearly the same? Can you find some open-minded 
robin down in Franklin, ere long, and Jet me know the truth of it, accord- 
ing to his view ?”” — Clark, Xenos, in a letter to the author, dated Sept. 7, 1888, 
Monterey, Berkshire County, Mass. 
“To vocal and instrumental music he preferred that of birds ; not from 
being incapable of finding delight in the others also, but because human 
music leaves in the mind a continual agitation which disturbs both atten- 
