Chap. XIII. VOCAL MUSIC. 51 



either then exert a choice, or the battle must be re- 

 newed. So, again, with one of the Field-starlings of 

 the United States {SturneUa ludovieiana) the males 

 enofaofe in fierce conflicts, " but at the si^'ht of a female 

 " they all fly after her, as if mad." -"* 



Vocal and instrumental Music. — With birds the voice 

 serves to express various emotions, such as distress, fear, 

 anger, triumpli, or mere happiness. It is apparently 

 sometimes used to excite terror, as with the hissing 

 noise made by some nestling-birds. Audubon ^^ relates 

 that a night-heron (Ardea nydicorax, Linn.) whicli he 

 kept tame, used to hide itself wlien a cat approached, 

 and then "suddenly start up uttering one of the most 

 " frightful cries, apparently enjoying the cat's alarm 

 " and flight." The common domestic cock clucks to 

 the hen, and the hen to her chickens, when a dainty 

 morsel is found. The lien, when she has laid an egg, 

 " repeats the same note very often, and concludes with 

 '^ the sixth above, which she holds for a longer time ; "^^ 

 and thus she expresses her joy. Some social birds 

 apparently call to each otlier for aid ; and as they flit 

 from tree to tree, the flock is kept together by chirp 

 answering chirp. During the nocturnal migrations of 

 geese and other water-fowl, sonorous clangs from tlie 

 van may be heard in the darkness overhead, answered 

 bv clauo's in the rear. Certain cries serve as dan":er- 

 signals, which, as the sportsman knows to his cost, are 

 well understood by the same species, and by others. 

 T'he domestic cock crows, and the humming-bird chirps, 

 in triumph over a defeated rival. The true song, how- 



2* AiTclubon's ' Ornitliolog. Biography ; ' on Tetrao cupido, vol. ii. 

 p. 492 ; oil the Sturniis, vol. ii. p. 219. ><7T?^ /W'^^N,^ 



25 ' Ornithological Biograph.' vol. v. p. 601. /V^^ <^ 



20 Tho Hon. Daiues Burrington, ' Philo.soph. Transact.yiS^, m.Q^.'^'O^ ^v 



