1896.] Psychology. 855 
July and August of that year. I had then of course no idea that my 
seemingly daring suggestions that mimicry had attuned the cries of 
birds to their environment, had been confirmed or anticipated in 
America by a writer who, whatever may be the value of his deductions, 
is obviously an acute observer. My papers in The Zoologist were 
severely handled last year by a writer who certainly had never heard 
of Mr. Rhoads’ article; and this year the same writer, in favorably 
criticising in Nature my new book, employed a few congratulatory 
words upon my having allowed certain of my former conclusions to 
drop into the background. 
Although Mr, Rhoads and I were working on the same track, he will 
I am sure allow that I have gone into the subjects in much greater 
detail than would be possible within the limits of an article, unless it 
occupied the whole of the magazine in which it appeared. Mr. Rhoads 
traces the origin of certain tones to noises produced by the elements, 
such as the bubbling of air through mud, the murmurs of streams, the 
sibilant sounds caused by branches being rubbed against each other by 
the wind, the cries of the victims of predacious birds, the croakings of 
amphibians, and the moaning of wind in hollow trees; and I adopted 
the same position, though quoting different instances, in relation to 
each of these features. He touches on heredity, in a way that would 
suggest the working-out of the theme in much the same way as I have 
attempted to do it. In his suggestion of the original use of the voice 
in “hissing or choking sounds,” and in my surmise that the voice was 
“evolved from a toneless puffing indicative of anger, or from snorts or 
grunts accidentally caused,” in support of which idea some pertinent 
evidence may be adduced, we have both, I think, advanced somewhat 
from Darwin’s proposition that involuntary and purposeless contractions 
of the muscles of the chest and glottis, due to excitement of the sensor- 
ium, first gave rise to the emission of vocal sounds (Expression of the 
Emotions, pp. 83, 84). 
In order to show, however, that I have not been limited to only those 
themes which Mr. Rhoads treats in so terse and yet so attractive a style, 
I would mention merely the “ contents ” of one of my chapters, in which 
some side-issues are dealt with, as follows: 
“Songs are generally uttered by males: exceptions—Not until birds 
have attained full size: exceptions—Most frequently at morning 
and evening: influence of weather—Tendency to rise in pitch with 
vehemence—Only small birds properly sing—Singers arboreal 
birds generally—Effect of living amid foliage: on size, hearing, 
and voice—Accent in songs—Singers clad in sober hues— Devel- 
