248 In Touch with Nature. 



to do with the bird's ordinary occupations. It is 

 a breaking in upon them, just as we who labor all 

 love to do, — lay aside our tools and take up the 

 fiddle and the bow. I do not propose to trifle 

 with the subject, but give honest expression to my 

 convictions in this matter. So long as we persist 

 in considering ourselves as something widely dif- 

 ferent and wholly set apart from the animal crea- 

 tion, birds and all other forms of life will be a 

 profound mystery to us, and whatsoever they do, 

 beyond our powers of interpretation; but let it 

 dawn upon us that they are largely governed by 

 the same laws, actuated by the same motives, — the 

 same causes urging them to do and dare, — then 

 the differences between the various utterances of 

 a bird will become evident, and we will go away 

 convinced that birds, like mankind, sing for pleas- 

 ure and talk from necessity. 



It has been shown conclusively by philosophical 

 naturalists that the songs of birds have a close 

 association with the pairing of birds, and all that 

 belongs to the continuance of the race. Here we 

 are brought, I doubt not, face to face with the 

 question of the origin of song, which is not that 



