Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

204 FLANNAN ISLANDS.
nation and relation of sounds which constitute the harmony
that can alone be appreciated by our ears. In the
sea birds, there are few tones and few notes, but they
are decided and steady. The body of sound is also far
greater; and, however inferior in variety or sweetness
the notes of the individuals may be, there is much more
variety in the harmonious combinations, and in that
which musicians would call the contrivance and design.
Very often they reminded me of some of the ancient re-
ligious compositions, which consist of a perpetual suc-
cession of fugue and imitation on a few simple notes
and sometimes it appeared as if different orchestras were
taking up the same phrases. Occasionally, the whole of
the sounds subsided, like those of the iEolian harp as
the breeze dies away, being again renewed on the ex-
citement of some fresh alarm. In other places I have
heard similar concerts performed among colonies of Gulls
alone; and with a variety and effect still more surpris-
ing, when the limited tones and powers of this tribe are
considered. On one of these occasions, at Noss Head, in
Shetland, I could scarcely avoid imagining that I was
listening to a portion of Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia,
" Mi par d'esser colla testa in un orrida fncina," so exact
was the rythm as well as the air and the harmony.
A musician, however, will be little surprised at what
others may perhaps consider a vagary of my own imagi-
nation, or as a little romance intended to enliven a dull
subject. It is well known that when many sounds are
produced together, belonging, perhaps, to the enharmonic
scale, or perhaps to no scale at all, there are some which
are not heard, while others are so regulated and modified
by those of more power, or by particular notes in a chord,
as to produce perfect harmonies. The ear seems, in fact,
to have great facility in rejecting what does not suit it;
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