158 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
It is very pleasant and curious to sec how many points of 
resemblance there are between these Plumy Poets and their 
bifurcated rivals without feathers. The points of departure 
are rather of manner than of kind. The bird is its own in- 
strument, and 
" Singetli of Summer in full-throated ease 
though there are exceptions; the Woodpecker sometimes 
makes of the hollow oak an " instrument," whereon to beat 
a tattoo. The Grouse extemporizes the thunder of deep 
bass, using an old log for a drum ; but these are incidental 
deviations, for they are not strictly Song Birds, though they 
carry important parts in tlie orchestra. The Man has a 
voice too, and uses it to a purpose sometimes — for old Her- 
rick says, 
"• So smootl), so sweet, so silv'ry is thy voice, 
As, could they hear, the damned would make no noise." 
And, in further proof of the earnestness with which it may 
be used, even the delicate Juliet exclaims. 
Else I could tear the cave Avhere Echo lies. 
And make her fairy tongue more hoarse than mine 
With repetition of my Romeo's name." 
And could you but hear the exquisite Mrs. Mowatt in the 
" Else I could tear" of these lines, you would understand 
what might be the voice of Shakspeare's "dove-feathered 
Raven" in sad beautiful rage ! In loftier numbers we are 
told how 
" The harmonious mind 
Poured forth itself in all prophetic song." 
But this labial lute — ^the organic "instrument" in man — 
could not yet equal the effects produced by those of his ri- 
vals; and, as he was to express in himself everything, he 
