88 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



bird, which with keen sense and a trite 

 philosophy often outshines in manners 

 and morals some of the human animals. 

 Have birds a language ? Surely they 

 have between themselves a spoken 

 understanding, which the least discern- 

 ing man may translate, and distinguish 

 between their cries of joy and of fear; 

 may separate their love songs and their 

 scolding from the subtle ventriloquism 

 that lures the searcher from a nest. 

 The chronicler of the Val Sainte Vero- 

 nique says that a superstition still 

 lingers there, — the belief that every 

 bird repeats some phrase of its own, 

 and that in every village there is 

 some one who understands and could 

 interpret it, but that he is in honour 

 bound to guard the knowledge until 

 when on his death-bed; then he may 

 reveal it to his nearest of kin: at 

 such a time, however, his thoughts 



