BIRD, William, an English composer, and one of the best organists of his time, was born about 1540, and died at London, 4th July 1623. He was appointed organist of Lincoln cathedral in 1563; and in 1575 he and his master Tallis were gentlemen of the chapel royal, and organists to Queen Elizabeth. Bird was the earliest English composer of madrigals, and some of his numerous sacred compositions are still much esteemed. Most of them were published during his lifetime under a patent from Queen Elizabeth, which secured to him and Tallis the sole right to print and sell music. Between 1575 and 1611 there were issued under this patent eight different collections of his works, with such titles as Cantiones Sacroe ; Gradualia; Psalmes, Songs, and Sonets, <fcc. The vocal canon Non nobis Domine, generally attributed to him, is well known, and often sung. He also wrote a number of pieces for Queen Elizabeth’s Virginal Book, and other similar collections. In his compositions there is a freedom and elegance rarely found in the music of his period. A full account of Bird’s life by E. F. Rimbault is prefixed to one of his Masses, published by the Musical Antiquarian Society.

צפור, a common name for all birds, but is sometimes used for the sparrow in particular. Birds are distinguished by the Jewish legislator into clean and unclean. Such as fed upon grain and seeds were allowed for food, and such as devoured flesh and carrion were prohibited. Moses, to inspire the Israelites with sentiments of tenderness toward the brute creation, commands them, if they find a bird’s nest, not to take the dam with the young, but to suffer the old one to fly away, and to take the young only, Deut. xxii, 6. This is one of those merciful constitutions in the law of Moses which respect the animal creation, and tended to humanize the heart of that people, to excite in them a sense of the divine providence extending itself to all creatures, and to teach them to exercise their dominion over them with gentleness. Beside, the young never knew the sweets of liberty; the dam did: they might be taken and used for any lawful purpose; but the dam must not be brought into a state of captivity. The poet Phocylides has a maxim, in his admonitory poem, very similar to that in the sacred texts:-- Μηδέ τις ὄρνιθας καλιῆς ἅμα ϖάντας ἑλέσθω, Μητερα δ’ ἐκπρολίπης, ἵν’ ἔχῃς ϖάλι τῆσδε νεοττούς. Nor from a nest take all the birds away, The mother spare, she’ll breed a future day. It appears that the ancients hunted birds. Baruch, iii, 17, speaking of the kings of Babylon, says, “They had their pastime with the fowls of the air;” and Daniel, iii, 38, tells Nebuchadnezzar that God had made the fowls of the air subject to him. Birds were offered in sacrifice on many occasions. In the sacrifices for sin, he who had not a lamb, or a kid, “might offer two turtles, or two young pigeons; ...