SCENTS AND SOUNDS 
113 
birds which take such pleasure in each other’s songs 
should be most sensitive to sweet sounds new to 
them. 
But the taste is not confined to birds. The old 
horses in the regimental riding-schools learn the 
meaning of the different bugle-calls ; and though it is 
not possible to say whether they distinguish between 
different airs, it is well known that they trot or gallop 
better to some tunes than to others. This may be 
compared with a curious story told by Playford in his 
Introduction to Music. “ When travelling some years 
since,” he writes, “ I met on the road to Royston a 
herd of about twenty bucks following a bagpipe and a 
violin : while the music played they went forward ; 
when it ceased they all stood still ; and in this manner 
they were brought out of Yorkshire to Hampton 
Court ” Seals have long been known for their love of 
sweet sounds. Laing, in his account of a voyage to 
Spitzbergen, says that when a violin was played on 
board the vessel, a numerous audience of seals would 
often assemble and follow the vessel for miles. Sir 
Walter Scott mentions this taste in the lines, — 
“ Rude Heiskar’s seals, through surges dark, 
Would oft pursue the minstrel’s bark ; ” 
and it is said that when the bell of the church on the 
island of Hoy rang, the seals within hearing swam to 
the shore, and remained looking about them as long as 
it was tolled. In a less prosaic age, the seals of Hoy 
might have become an established myth of a success- 
