JVOOn NOTES TAMED. 
M7 
And in Selborne's grassy hollows, 
List the twitter of thy swallows ! 
Chronicler, afar from strife. 
Of the quiet country life. 
Naturalist as sage as simple. 
While leaves whisper, and brooks dimple. 
While bird-song and blossom-story 
Still bewitch, thy gentle glory 
Shall be the peculiar pleasure 
Of all lovers of wise leisure. 
Time’s moss-growths hide not thy name 
On the tablets of true fame. 
WOOD NOTES TAMED.- 
HE title of this book is a most unfortunate one. It 
should have been called, not “ Wood Notes Wild,” 
but “Wood Notes Tamed." It is an attempt by a 
musical American gentleman, a very lovable cha- 
racter it would .seem, to catch the wild notes of wild birds, and 
to crib, cabin, and confine them within the lines and spaces of 
our musical stave. They are chiefly the songs of American birds, 
and therefore I am unable to say how much of their wild nature 
still cleaves to them in their pitiable captivity, but wherever the 
song of an English bird is represented in this volume, as happens 
in the additional notes by Mr. Cheney’s son, I am able to say 
with confidence that when put to the torture on our scale the 
life of the song vanishes at once. Nothing is left of it but a 
ghastly caricature, or at best in one or two cases a pretty 
musical phrase, which has not as much resemblance to the 
birds’ song as a woollen sock has to the human foot. 
I hope no musical Selbornian will ever be tempted to waste 
his time in any such attempt to put the voices of the birds to 
shame. Nothing can be gained by it either for natural history 
or for art. I do not think it is my nature to be over-positive 
about anything, but here is a point on which I will for once 
venture to say that I know I am right. Birds do not sing or 
converse on our musical scale, and any attempt to represent 
their songs in this way must be futile ; at best it can only be a 
translation, as it were, into a different language. I should not 
write thus if I did not understand music; my knowledge and 
love of music is much older than my knowledge and love of 
birds. 
Last winter, with the kind help of my friend Mr. Pyecraft, 
* IVood Notes JVt/d, by Samuel Pease Cheney. 
Sheppard, 1892. 
Boston, U.S.A. ; Lea and 
