VOICE. 
167 
are in general silent ; and it wonld be strange, indeed 
if they were not, seeing that the greatest part of o 
song Hrds have taken their departure ! Had a little 
further inquiry been made, there are many traveller 
who could have told Buffon, that in more genial climates 
and especially between the tropics, the 
aU the year round with the notes of birds, both before 
and after the season of incubation, while the autumnal 
song of the robin, long after that period, refutes the 
idea that birds do not naturally indulge themselves in 
this delightful harmony except in the season of court- 
sh p The faculty, in short, is imlicative of general 
plSsure, for we sec it exerted at all seasons by canaries 
Ld other birds kept in cages, where food and warm 
is provided. It is, of course, most 
latitudes, in the spring, when al nature “ to bu^ 
again into life, and the io^tinct ol reproduction pe ^ 
both the vegetable and the animal world. ^ 
not the power has been given more especially to the 
male for^ the purpose of attracting the tomale, m *e 
first instance may be a matter of doubt ; but that this 
Jaculty is intended to solace her during the long, and 
otherwise tedious, period of incubation cannot be ques- 
tioned. Few persons are aware that the common house 
swallow has one of the most varied and long continued 
sings of all those birds which come to us in summer 
A p^air of these have now for four years huilt their nest 
widiin three yards of our study window, and whde the 
female is sitting, the male perches on “ 
prominence, and continues to solace her, and pleas 
himself, at frequent intervals, all the day lo''g- 
little UTen, on the other hand, seems to send ^ 
quick and sharp song in the spring, 
overflow of animal spirits, and at times wh™ 
completely alone, and flitting from hedge to tliic 
search of insects. r , 1,0 different 
(143.) To attempt the description of the 
modes of singing, or more ProP^y our 
languages of birds, is quite impossible, evti 
M 4 
