Marville has given us the following anecdote. He says, “that doubting
the truth of those who say it is natural for us to love music,
especially the sound of instruments, and that beasts themselves are
touched with it, being one day in the country, I enquired into the
truth; and, while a man was playing on the trump-marine, made my
observations on a cat, a dog, a horse, an ass, a hind, cows, small
birds, and a cock and hens, who were in a yard, under a window on
which I was leaning.
“I did not perceive that the cat was the least affected, and I even
judged, by her air, that she would have given all the instruments in
the world for a mouse, sleeping in the sun all the time. The horse
stopped short, from time to time, before the window, raising his head
up now and then, as he was feeding on the grass. The dog continued
for above an hour seated on his hind legs, looking stedfastly at the
player. The ass did not discover the least indication of his being
touched, eating his thistles peaceably. The hind lifted up her large
wide ears, and seemed very attentive. The cows slept a little, and,
after gazing, as though they had been acquainted with us, went
forward. Some little birds, who were in an aviary, and others on the
trees and bushes, almost tore their little throats with singing: but
the cock, who minded only his hens, and the hens who were solely
employed in scraping a neighbouring dunghill, did not show, in any
manner, that they took the least pleasure in hearing the trump-marine.”