LANGUAGE. 181 



brood, among all the young broods of other birds 

 of the same species in the neighbourhood ; and this 

 they do as distinctly as the ewe knows the bleat of 

 her own lamb, or the lamb the cry of its own moth- 

 er, among a large flock. With regard to the note 

 of alarm birds send forth on the approach of their 

 natural enemies, whether a hawk, an owl, or a cat, 

 we consider it to be a general language perfectly 

 understood by all small birds, though each species 

 has a note peculiar to itself. This note differs in 

 sound from the note of fear or alarm given by them 

 when man approaches near their nests. This last 

 seems confined to particular species : but this gen- 

 eral alarm note (which is understood by all small 

 birds), we should call their war-whoop or gathering 

 cry, for it is a true natural slogan."* 



The noisy cackle of jays, the cawing of rooks, 

 and the incessant yelp of sparrows, appear, so far 

 as we can judge, to be partly so many social signals 

 for congregating in a particular place, and to be 

 continued after the flock has assembled, either to 

 warn stragglers to what point they ought to wing 

 their way, or, in the spirit of rivalry which prevails 

 so extensively among birds, with the object of out- 

 vying each other in loudness of tone. It is remark- 

 able, indeed, that most, if not all gregarious birds 

 are thus noisy, and differ much in this respect from, 

 solitary or sub-solitary birds. If a rook or a sea- 

 gull, therefore, is by accident separated from its 

 companions, it will keep up an incessant vociferous 

 call, till a response is returned either from some 

 other straggler or from the colony to which it be- 

 longs. The necessity of such a habit as this is still 

 more obvious in the case of those birds which mi- 

 grate together at night. " Aquatic and gregarious 

 birds," says White, " especially the nocturnal, that 

 shift their quarters in the dark, are very noisy and 



* Brit. Song Birds, Intr., p. 31. 



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