180 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



cuckoo, their foster nursling, and supply him with 

 food long after he can fly about, whenever they hear 

 his cuckooing, which Linnaeus tells us is his call of 

 hunger.* And all our domestic animals are readily 

 taught to come to us for food when we use one 

 tone of voice, and to fly from our anger when we 

 use another." 



Those who have attended minutely to the lan- 

 guage of fear, alarm, or defiance among birds, can- 

 not fail to have remarked the considerable variety 

 both of notes and intonation in the same species. 

 Thus, as White of Selborne remarks, " when the 

 hen turkey leads forth her young brood, she keeps 

 a watchful eye, and if a bird of prey appear, though 

 ever so high in the air, the careful mother announ- 

 ces the enemy with a little inward moan, and watch- 

 es him with a steady and attentive look ; but, if he 

 approach, her note becomes earnest and alarming, 

 and her outcries are redoubled."! In the instance 

 of a male bird expressing fear or giving an alarm 

 to the hen of the approach of danger near the nest, 

 the tones seem to be varied so as to give her due 

 notice either to keep close and still, or to make her 

 escape with as much caution as she can. " This 

 note," observes Mr. Syme, " is only comprehended 

 by birds of the same species, though we have cer- 

 tainly seen birds of different genera appear as if 

 alarmed by this note of fear sounded by a bird of a 

 different species or genus ; but whether it was the 

 note that alarmed them or our presence, we can- 

 not say. But we are pretty sure the notes of parent 

 birds and the chirp of their young are only under- 

 stood by birds of the same species, or, rather, we 

 should say, same family, for it appears to be a fami- 

 ly language, understood reciprocally by parent birds 

 and their young : for the young know the notes of 

 the parents, and the parents those of their own 



* Syst. Nat t Letter 65. 



