Singing is applied to birds in the same sense that it is to human
beings--the utterance of musical notes. Every person makes vocal sounds
of some kind, but many persons never attempt to sing. So it is with
birds. The eagle screams, the owl hoots, the wild goose honks, the crow
caws, but none of these discordant sounds can be called singing.
With the poet, the singing of birds means merry, light-hearted
joyousness, and most of us are poetic enough to view it in the same
way. Birds sing most in the spring and the early summer, those happiest
seasons of the year, while employed in nest-building and in rearing
their young. Many of our musical singers are silent all the rest of the
year; at least they utter only low chirpings.
Outside of what are properly classed as song birds there are many
species that never pretend to sing; in fact, these far outnumber the
musicians. They include the water birds of every kind, both swimmers
and waders; all the birds of prey, eagles, hawks, owls, and vultures;
and all the gallinaceous tribes, comprising pheasants, partridges,
turkeys, and chickens. The gobble of the turkey cock, the defiant crow
of the "bob-white," are none of them true singing; yet it is quite
probable that all of these sounds are uttered with precisely similar
motives to those that inspire the sweet warbling of the song-sparrow,
the clear whistle of the robin, or the thrilling music of the
wood-thrush.--_Philadelphia Times._
[Illustration: CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO., CHIC. & NEW YORK.
HYACINTH.
Life-size
COPYRIGHT 1899,
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]