ve young; with
wandering eye and anxious look she grieves the livelong day." It is
specially difficult in the case of oxen to suppose that they have a
language; but it is impossible to doubt that the variations of their
lowing are understood of one another, and serve to express their
feelings if not their thoughts.

[Illustration]
[Illustration: COW LOWING.]

In the matter of exclamations, one knows how readily these may be
imitated upon the violin, or in the case of the deeper or more guttural
sounds, on the violoncello. The natural effect is greatly aided by the
sliding of the finger along the note, especially in the case of the
lowing of cattle; but there are other exclamations that are readily
reduced to music. Gardiner gives one or two interesting cases, and the
common salutation, "How d'ye do?" may be instanced. It usually starts on
B natural, and the voice rising to D ends on C; whereas, the reply,
"Pretty well, thank you," begins on D, and falling to A, ends again on
D. After a few attempts on the piano, the reader will be able readily to
form these notes for himself.

[Illustration]
[Illustration: HORSE NEIGHING.]

The horse, on the other hand, is rarely heard, and, though having a
piercing whinny which passes through every semitone of the scale, it is
scarcely ever varied.

[Illustration: THE CHIRP OF THE GRASSHOPPER.]

The music of the insects has already been alluded to, and everyone will
agree with Gilbert White that "not undelightful is the ceaseless hum, to
him who musing walks at noon." The entomologist has laboured hard to
show us that the insect has no voice, and that the "drowsy hum" is made
by the wings; a fact which, being beyond all cavil, puts to the blush
the old-world story of Plutarch, who tells us that when Terpander was
playing upon the lyre, at the Olympic games, and had enraptured his
audience to the highest pitch of enthusiasm a string of his instrument
broke, and a _cicada_ or grasshopper perched on the bridge supplied by
its voice the loss of the string and saved the fame of the musician. To
this day in Surinam the Dutch call them lyre-players. If there is any
truth in the story, the grasshopper then had powers far in advance of
his degenerated descendants; for now the grasshopper--like the
cricket--has a chirp consisting of three notes in rhythm, always forming
a triplet in the key of B.

[Illustration]
[Illustration: FLY BUZZING.]

[Illustration]
[Illustration: DUCK.]