LANGUAGE OF BIRDS 



ances of young starlings in the crevices of the wall 

 and beneath the eaves resemble an escape of steam 

 rather than the parental cry. In July the 

 monotonous chant of the young greenfinches 

 goes on for hours as the birds sit together on a 

 single branch waiting to be fed, and the repeated 

 cadence has no connection with the notes of their 

 elders. Another complication arises to confuse 

 the tyro in bird-lore. Adult birds not only 



abandon their spring song, but they often so 

 modulate their call-notes that they can be 

 hardly recognised. For instance, in August the 

 willow-wren utters a soft, warning cry that is 

 never heard in May. It resembles one of 

 the call-notes of the chaffinch rather than 

 that of the warbler, and in our experience, it is 

 never used before the young are on the wing. The 

 change in the cuckoo's cry as summer advances is 

 also well marked. 



Distinguishing Birds by Their Note. 

 If one were blind it might easily be thought that 

 the book of nature would be practically sealed. 

 That this is not so is shown by the existence of 

 blind botanists who have been known to become 

 extraordinarily proficient in their study, and are 

 able to identify rare plants which have baffled 

 experts to whom vision is vouchsafed. Man, 

 the knower is so subtly constructed that, when 

 one avenue of perception is closed, other senses 

 grow keener to make up the deficiency, and both 

 hearing and touch may reach a point of per- 

 fection and a power of discrimination of which 

 the normally endowed being has no conception. 

 When one reflects upon this matter, one begins to 

 realise, how many of the activities of nature are 

 conveyed to us by sound rather than by sight. 

 As we wander through the woods and fields, we 



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