Nov., 1922 MUSICAL “‘TASTE”’ IN THE BROWN TOWHEE 203 
Let us also here note, as of possible significance, the fact that the only other 
utterances possessed by the Brown Towhee besides his ‘‘bouncing’’ song are: 
(1) A suceession of eight or nine rather distressed-sounding squeaking sounds, 
somewhat as one might squeak with one’s lips, and (2) a faint high attenuation 
of what we may call the family ‘‘tseep’’ of the Fringillidae, some version of 
which is found in most of the sparrows. Neither of these two ‘‘other utter- 
anees’’ are in the least musical. Is it, then, endowing our bird with too much 
‘‘aesthetic’’ sense to presume that through the ages he has been lstening with 
something akin to admiration to sounds that were more musical than his own? 
Some people may object that sounds which are considered ‘‘more musical’’ by 
the cultivated human sense would not necessarily be so to the senses of lower 
animals. _I do not agree with this objection. I believe in the absolute swperi- 
ority of certain sounds over others. Sounds that we call musical are not so 
because we consider them such, but we, being the most cultivated hearers are 
the best judges of the fact. The same fact is in the course of evolution bound 
to be realized by other animals. In the Santa Lucia Brown Towhee’s choice of 
what is obviously the most musical sound of the thirteen sounds available for 
imitative use I believe we see something not unrelated to aesthetic taste. 
Let me state my concluding remarks in the form of three points, as follows. 
(1) The cause of bird song evolution is the bird’s aliveness. 
(2) The METHOD is of necessity mimicry, which in itself makes for song-elab- 
oration. 
(3) The RESULT, therefore, is: 
(a) an improved song; 
(b) the bird’s pleasurable awareness of this fact; 
(c) the self-stimulation to still further improvement, resulting in a more 
conscious or deliberate employment of the mimicry METHOD through the 
exercise of MUSICAL TASTE. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Clark, Xenos. Animal Music, Its Nature and Origin. The American Naturalist, xI1I, 
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Craig, Wallace. The Voices of Pigeons Regarded as a Means of Social Control. Re- 
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Hawkins, Chauncey J. Sexual Selection and Bird Song. The Auk, xxxtx, January, 
1922, pp. 49-57. 
James, William. Psychology (Am. Sci. Series, Briefer Course). New York, 1900. 
Morgan, C. Lloyd. Animal Behaviour. London, 1908. 
Rhoads, S. N. The Mimetic Origin and Development of Bird Language. American 
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Witchell, Charles A. The Evolution of Bird-Song. London, 1896. 
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, August 4, 1922. 
