116 HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 
notes of musical instruments, but more especially their 
own songs and those of one another. The pleasing 
myth that “the birds came in great flocks to listen to 
the delightful strains of Orpheus’ lute” savors more of 
fact than many other things handed down as truths in 
ancient history. Our unmusical English sparrow enjoys 
the songs of other birds: on different occasions I have 
seen several of them gather about a robin as he caroled 
a pleasing song: when they came too near or in too 
large numbers he would dart at them and drive them 
out of the tree, but when he commenced again to sing, 
some of them were quite sure to return. A friend sends 
me an account of a bobolink, that, placed in a cage with 
some canaries, exhibited great delight at their songs. 
He did not sing himself, but with a peculiar ‘cluck’ 
could always set the canaries singing. After a while he 
began to learn their songs, note by note, and in the 
course of a few weeks mastered the entire song. Then 
he commenced to lead the choir, and kept the others 
going much of the time. 
Even the prosaic goose, an animal ridiculed in litera- 
ture and the butt for flippant jokes, but really a very 
intelligent fowl, and capable of forming the strongest 
attachment to even man himself, is fond of music, and 
a lively air on a violin will sometimes set a whole flock 
wild with delight. On one occasion, at a country wed- 
ding, I was witness to a curious performance by one of 
these animals. After dinner a lady entertained the 
guests assembled on the lawn with music from an accor- 
dion. A flock of geese were feeding in the road just 
