elsy! "After man,"
says a writer, "the birds occupy the highest rank in Nature's
concerts. They make the woods, the gardens, and the fields resound
with their merry warbles. Their warbled 'shake' has never been
equalled by human gifts of voice, nor by art."

Indeed, it has been found that many of the songs of birds are sung in
certain of the keys; while a learned musical writer has produced a
book in which are printed many samples of the music often sung by
birds. In very recent times it is stated, too, that birds have been
taught to sing some of the popular tunes of the day; this being
accomplished by placing a bird in a room for a while, allowing it to
hear no other bird, and only the tune to be learned. Professor Brown
of Aiken, S.C., has mocking-birds which he has taught to sing such
songs as "The Star-spangled Banner" and "Yankee Doodle." These birds
were to be taken to the Centennial Exhibition, to there exhibit their
marvellous skill.

A writer in "The Monthly Reader" thus speaks of that pretty singer the
bullfinch:--

"I heard a lady cry out to a little bird in a cage, 'Come,
Bully, Bully, sweet little Bully Bullfinch, please give us
just one more tune.'

"And then, to my surprise, the little bird whistled the tune
of 'Yankee Doodle' as well as I could have done it myself.

"The lady then told me about the bird. It was a bullfinch.
She had bought it in the little town of Fulda, in Germany,
where there are schools for teaching these birds to sing.

"When a bullfinch has learned to sing two or three tunes, he
is worth from forty to sixty dollars; for he will bring that
price in London or Boston or New York.

"To teach them, the birds are put in classes of about six
each, and kept for a time in a dark room. Here, when their
food is given them, they are made to hear music. And so,
when they have had their food, or when they want more food,
they will sing, and try to sing a tune like that they have
just heard; for perhaps they think it has something to do
with what they eat."

But as, in presenting these examples of the musical teachableness of
the "feathered songsters," I am entering the domain of music as an
art, I will not further digress. Certain it is, too, that these
delightful musicians of Nature do not require the aid of the skill of
man; nor is it desirable, for the sake of musical effect at least,
that thei