LANGUAGE OF BIRDS 



CHAPTER IX 



Expression of Ideas. Birds' Song. Specific Differences 

 IN Notes. Distinguishing Birds by their Note. Birds' 

 Voices at Night. Hu]yL\N Quality in Birds' Song. 

 Musician AND Bird. Why Birds Sing. Mijshcry. Dialect. 

 Abnormal Song. 



To what extent birds may be said to possess a 

 definite language is a question which has often 

 been discussed. The first point to be taken is 

 how the word language may be defined. I^an- 

 guage is a recognised code of sounds expressing 

 in its earlier stages the strongest and crudest 

 emotions only. As it becomes developed, fainter 

 and less obvious feelings are set forth, until at its 

 highest in the hands of a master it touches the 

 most subtle and evanescent thoughts and fancies 

 of the mind. It is not easy to define the place 

 of music in the scale of language, but it cannot be 

 denied that, inadequate as music may be for the 

 common purposes of life, it is constantly used to 

 express shades and phases of feeling and thought 

 which lie outside the reach of words altogether. 



Now, in considering the matter of birds, it 

 becomes clear at once that their code of sound 

 has two at least of the qualities of an organised 

 language ; the stronger and more obvious emotions 

 are expressed with a certainty about which there 

 can be no mistake, and each sound is at once 

 recognised by other members of the species as 



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