82 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



sion implies that there are those who have no ear for 

 music — tliose, in other words, who are tone-deaf. 

 But tone-deafness is simply a qualifying term, and 

 we are forced to admit that the person without an ear 

 for music is to a certaia extent deaf. Now, a par- 

 tially deaf person will hardly be able to distinguish 

 apart the songs of two different robins, one of which 

 is much more musical than the other. So I must 

 appeal to the imagination of the unmusical as well 

 as the musical mind in order to have my bird songs 

 understood ; they must not be taken too literally.* 



I have said that we respond to the music of Na- 

 ture according to the degree of our musical percep- 

 tion ; but it only needs a little cultivation of our sense 

 of hearing to be able to intelligently grasp the mu- 

 sical idea which Nature is constantly suggesting. 

 Thus a musical robin last June sang the following mel- 

 ody, more or , 0"^'° .r. 

 less perfectly: l^nM- | [n'V li^J'vl C ^Vlfr P 



* Without imagination it would be difficult, if not impossible, 

 to understand a wild bird's song. One has not only to hear all 

 the notes with an attentive ear, but sort them out, so to speak, 

 and transmute them to truer and better conditions. Thus, what 

 is doubtfully A in a bird's song must be positively A in the hear- 

 er's mind ; and u, musical fifth which is o;ff a quarter or half a 

 tone must be considered — not a bit off! In music we allow only 

 tones and half-tones — for instance, C and D ; between the two is 

 C sharp, the half-tone. The bird is very apt to sing a quarter- 

 tone, that is something halfway between C and C sharp. 



