176 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
all the cunning devices of a practised veteran in 
lying in wait for a mouse, which it succeeded in 
capturing, though, so far as we were aware, it had 
never before seen a mouse; and we have not a 
doubt, though we never witnessed an instance, that 
a young hawk would pounce upon the first live bird 
presented to it, independently of all experience and 
instruction. 
* 
CHAPTER XIV. 
LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
By the term language, in reference to birds, we 
mean sounds which can be mutually understood, ex- 
cluding the words and phrases which parrots and 
starlings may be taught by imitation, but to which 
the birds that repeat them can attach no meaning. 
An example will best illustrate this, and we do not 
recollect cone more apposite than a circumstance 
mentioned by Wilson when speaking of the richel 
bird (Sterna minuta). “I lately,” he says, “ visited 
those parts of the beach on Cape May where this 
little bird breeds. During my whole stay, these 
birds flew in crowds around me, and often within a 
few yards of my head, squeaking like so many 
young pigs, which noise their voice strikingly re- 
sembles. A humming-bird, that had accidentally 
strayed to the place, appeared suddenly among this 
outrageous troop, several cf whom darted angrily 
at him; but he shot like an arrow from them, di- 
recting his flight straight towards the ocean. I 
have no doubt but the distressing cries of the terus 
had drawn this little creature to the scene, having 
frequently witnessed his anxious curiosity on simi- 
