Chap. XIII. VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC. 67 
breeding-season, and the diversity of the means for 
producing such sounds, are highly remarkable. We 
thus gain a high idea of their importance for sexual 
purposes, and are reminded of the same conclusion with 
respect to insects. It is not difficult to imagine the steps 
by which the notes of a bird, primarily used as a mere 
call or for some other purpose, might have been im- 
proved into a melodious love-song. This is somewhat 
more difficult in the case of the modified feathers, by 
which the drumming, whistling, or roaring noises are 
produced. But we have seen that some birds during 
their courtship flutter, shake, or rattle their unmodified 
feathers together ; and if the females were led to select 
the best performers, the males which possessed the 
strongest or thickest, or most attenuated feathers, situ- 
ated on any part of the body, would be the most 
successful ; and thus by slow degrees the feathers might 
be modified to almost any extent. The females, of 
course, would not notice each slight successive alteration 
in shape, but only the sounds thus produced. It is a 
curious fact that in the same class of animals, sounds 
so different as the drumming of the snipe’s tail, the 
tapping of the woodpecker’s beak, the harsh trumpet- 
like cry of certain water-fowl, the cooing of the turtle- 
dove, and the song of the nightingale, should all be 
pleasing to the females of the several species. But 
we must not judge the tastes of distinct species by a 
uniform standard ; nor must we judge by the standard 
of man’s taste. Even with man, we should remember 
what discordant noises, the beating of tom-toms and 
the shrill notes of reeds, please the ears of savages. 
Sir S. Baker remarks, that ^^as the stomach of the 
Arab prefers the raw meat and reeking liver taken 
‘ The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia,’ 18G7, p. 203. 
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