Craig, Expressions of Etnotion in Pigeons. 45 



Each coo consists of three syllables, which may be represented as 

 cook coorr roo (or in German, which has the advantage of a definite 

 pronunciation, kuhk kuhrr riih). The first and the last syllable are 

 the emphatic syllables, the middle one sounding like a connective 

 between the other two. The emphasis of the first and the last sylla- 

 ble is usually accompanied by a heightened pitch, there being a fall 

 in pitch, usually somewhat abrupt, from the first syllable to the 

 second, and a rise, usually a gradual one, from the second syllable 

 to the third. The sound represented by the letter r has nothing in 

 common with the r as pronounced in most parts of the United States ; 

 it is a distinctly rolling sound; yet it is not even like the r as rolled 

 by the tongue, but like the rolling sound produced by the uvula. 

 The rolling produced by the dove seems to be merely a rapid repeti- 

 tion of the k sound which is heard singly at three points in the coo 

 (thus, kooJc A'oorr roo) and heard singly also in the kah. If this 

 is true, then the single k sound and the rolling must be produced in 

 one and the same organ ; what organ that is it would not be easy to 

 say, though it is probably the syrinx. In imitating the ring-dove's 

 cooing, then, it is most precise to make the rolling sound with the 

 uvula ; persons who cannot roll the uvula will produce the next ap- 

 proximation by rolling the r with the tongnie. The ring-dove's 

 cooing may be imitated very closely by the human voice, in the 

 soprano register. Any reader of this paper who can read music can 

 produce for himself a sufficiently accurate imitation of the dove's 

 cooing by singing the syllables to the music given, remembering the 

 one peculiarity of notation already mentioned (p. 32). One who 

 cannot read music can have a sufficiently accurate imitation produced 

 for him by any musician, capable of singing soprano, who will read 

 the syllables and the notation given on the following pages. 



The three clear syllables constituting the coo proper are followed 

 generally, though not invariably, by two guttural syllables which 

 seem to have something to do with drawing in or regulating the 

 breath, though what is their precise function I have never been able 

 to observe. Gutturals similarly closing the strain are heard in the 

 case of many other birds which are accustomed to pour forth the 

 song wath one continuous, tense effort ; for example, such a sound is 



