Nov., 1922 MUSICAL “TASTE’”’ IN THE BROWN TOWHEE 201 
These are thirteen sounds forcing themselves incessantly upon the Brown 
Towhee’s attention. It is reasonable to assume, then, that they are the sounds 
most in line for imitation. The question is: Why is the House Wren’s song the 
sound chosen? 
‘‘One of the most extraordinary facts of our life,’’ declares William James 
(p. 217), ‘‘is that, although we are besieged at every moment by impressions 
from our whole sensory surface, we notice so very small a part of them. The 
sum total of our impressions never enters into our experience, consciously so 
ealled, which runs through the sum total like a tiny rill through a broad flowery 
mead. Yet the physical impressions which do not count are there as much as 
those that do, and affect our sense organs just as energetically. Why they fail 
to pierce the mind is a mystery .. .’’. 
This was written concerning human experience, but I do not see why it is 
not just as applicable to bird experience. The factor of attention certainly 
enters into the situation. The Towhee ‘‘just naturally’’ attends to certain 
sounds and disregards others. As between a dozen sounds equally thrust upon 
his ears, he is for some reason interested in certain ones more than others, and 
therefore all the others are shut out of his conscious consideration. 
To quote from Lloyd Morgan: ‘‘We often say ... that mterest guides 
behavior in this direction or in that. But such interest must not be regarded 
as an impelling force; it is an attribute of the conscious situation, more or less 
suffused with feeling-tone. It is not easy to define; but it seems to take on its 
distinctive character when representative elements contribute what Dr. Stout 
terms ‘meaning’ to the conscious situation’’. 
When a Brown Towhee (acting for and in accordance with its race, due to 
the identity of germ-plasm in all members) selects the song of a House Wren 
rather than any one of the other eleven sounds equally forced upon its sense of 
hearing, the song of the House Wren must have some special meaning over and 
above the other sounds. Let me ask even again: Has this meaning anything to 
do with the social economy of Brown Towhee life? Is it a matter of life and 
death that certain types of sound shall be shut out of the conscious attention, 
and others heeded? And again let me reply that I do not believe any such thing, 
When it is becoming so questionable that even a human being is born with any- 
thing within him that causes him to act for the advantage of his own kind, why 
should we expect it in birds? Human beings show ‘‘interests’’ in things, but 
these interests are commonly in no way connected with race progress and are 
not even vital to the individual. I mean, it makes no killing difference if a 
wavering boy finally chooses radio operating instead of architecture. Nor does 
it make any more difference whether a Brown Towhee chooses to imitate a Wren 
song or a Flicker call. Insofar as a choice of musical sounds is concerned it 
does not seem reasonable that anything is at work except a sort of taste. Human 
beings hke and pay attention to certain musical compositions above certain 
others. So does the Brown Towhee. In selecting the song of the House Wren 
he is guided, in my opinion, by a lowly sort of aesthetic feeling. Xenos Clark 
believes that birds have ‘‘an ear for musie’’ and that in evolving their songs 
they follow a harmonic pathway, which, however, happens to be for them the 
pathway of least resistance. The primitive bird, he says (p. Ze Same Oo 
please himself or his mate, and the most pleasing combination of notes was that 
most easily heard; the combination producing least friction and securing the 
