6; 3 A F FEND I X. 



may poffibly alfo account for the inferiority in 

 point of plumage. 



I mall now confider how far the finging of 

 birds refembles our known mufical intervals, which- 

 ( are never marked more minutely than to half 

 notes ; becaufe, though we can form every grada- 

 tion from half-note to half-note, by drawing the 

 nnser gently over the firing of a violin, or cover- 

 ing by degrees the hole of a flute; yet we cannot 

 produce luch a minute interval at command, 

 when a quarter-note for example might be required. 



Ligon^ indeed, in his hifbry of Barbadoes, hath 

 the following pafTage : " The next bird is of the 

 ** colour of the fieldfare •, but the head is too large 

 u for the body ; and for that reafon fhe is called 

 " a couniellor. She performs that with her voice, 

 " which no inilrument can play, or voice can fing - r 

 " and that is quarter-notes, her fong being com- 

 " pofed of them, and every one a note higher than 

 " another." 



Ligon appears, from other parts of his work, to 

 have been mufical ; but I fhould doubt much whe- 

 ther he was quite fure of thefe quarter intervals, fo 

 as to fpeak of them with precifion. 



Some pafifages of the fong in a few kinds of birds 

 correipond with the intervals of our mufical fcale 

 (of which the cuckow is a ftriking and known in- 

 (rance) : much the greater part, however, of fuch 

 fong is not capable of mufical notations. 



This arifes from three caufes : the firft is, that 



the 



