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8 Journal of Comparative Neurology and Psychology. 



from it in inflection and in being divided into a series of separate 

 sonnds. The kab, being generally a social call, is widely, different 

 from the alarm-note in meaning. But on rare occasions, on one 

 occasion in particular, I have beard a ring-dove give a note which 

 seemed to be an intermediate between the kab and the alarm. On 

 the particular occasion referred to, when the bird heard other doves 

 fighting in a neighboring cage (being unable to see them), it appeared 

 to be moved both by alarm and by a social attraction toward the 

 other doves, and it gave, several times, a sound which was interme- 

 diate between the alarm and the kah ; thus : 



The second note may be tlistinet. or may be, as it were, merely the declining 



end of the first note. 



The fact that the dove can give an intermediate between two sounds 

 which usually are so distinct, shows that the bird has more freedom 

 in the use of its voice than might at first be supposed. 



5. The Kaii. 



The kah is a note which, in speaking familiarly about the doves, 

 we often designate as the ''laugh," because it resembles the laugh 

 of a young child so closely as to suggest that sound to anyone who 

 hears the kah for the first time. But I have avoided calling it the 

 ''laugh" in this paper, because, though the cry sounds like a laugh, 

 I must gaiard against leading the reader to think of it as a laugh in 

 any other sense. The kah consists of from three to ten notes, like 

 ''kah kah kah kah kah," in an uninternipted series, all the notes being, 

 as a rule, closely alike. The timbre is a chest-tone, with a sort of 

 nasal twang, suggestive of the harder notes of a clarinet. The 

 various forms of the kah may be imitated with much accuracy by 

 the human voice. 



This cry is an exceedingly variable one, for it differs greatly as 



