INDIAN SONG-BIRDS 291 
I am ashamed to say that I had known the bird 
for a long time before I became acquainted with its 
song. One day, my work detained me late, so, instead 
of going to club as usual, I took a stroll in the garden; 
my progress was soon arrested by an exceptionally fine 
song, of considerable power and great compass: on 
looking up, I discovered, to my great surprise, that the 
vocalist was a common magpie robin which was sitting 
on a bare branch. Since that day I have listened to its 
voice so frequently that it is a mystery to me that 
I had never heard it before. 
How is it possible to explain this want of knowledge 
of the song of the common birds of India? Of course, 
the human ear is a strange organ. It continually re- 
ceives thousands of vibrations, capable of being per- 
ceived as sound by the brain, which are never heard at 
all, sounds which, so to speak, pass in at one ear and 
out of the other. Soft sounds seem never to be per- 
ceived unless the ear is consciously or unconsciously 
listening for them. 
In the early morning and late afternoon, when most 
of the Indian birds pour forth their song, the ear is 
greeted by myriads of sounds, many sharp and powerful, 
so that the soft musical ones, which do not grate upon 
the auditory nerve, are apt to pass unnoticed. 
Then one walks so little in India. When driving, 
the rumbling sound of the carriage wheels drowns, to 
a great extent, the songs of the smaller birds; under 
such circumstances, these can be heard by listening for 
them, and, in order to listen for a sound, one has to 
know it. If we in India could only indulge in country 
