LANGUAGE. 183 



across the uprights of an iron railing, and comes on 

 the ear so quick and transient that it is impossible 

 to catch a view of the bird by trying to follow the 

 sound. 



It is ingeniously, and, as we think, correctly re- 

 marked by Mr. Knapp, that, " as Nature in all her 

 ordinations had a fixed design and foreknowledge, 

 it may be that each species had a separate voice 

 assigned it, that each might continue as created, 

 distinct and unmixed; and the very few deviations 

 and admixtures that have taken place, considering 

 the lapse of time, association, and opportunity, 

 united with the prohibition of continuing accidental 

 deviations, are very remarkable, and indicate a cause 

 and original motive. That some of the notes of 

 birds are a language designed to convey a meaning, 

 is obvious from the very different sounds uttered by 

 these creatures at particular periods ; the spring 

 voices become changed as summer advances, and 

 the requirements of the early season have ceased : 

 the summer excitements, monitions, informations, 

 are not needed in autumn, and the notes conveying 

 such intelligence are no longer heard. The period- 

 ical calls of animals, croaking of frogs, &c., afford 

 the same reason for concluding that the sound of 

 their voices, by elevation, depression, or modula- 

 tion, conveys intelligence equivalent to an uttered 

 sentence. The voices of birds seem applicable, 

 in most instances, to the immediate necessities of 

 their condition ; such as the sexual call, the invita- 

 tion to unite when dispersed, the moan of danger, 

 the shriek of alarm, the notice of food."* 

 ' It was, no doubt, from such views as these, that 

 the notion originated of birds being possessed of a 

 language, and of a knowledge of it having been ob- 

 tained by certain individuals. The faculty of inter- 

 preting the language of birds is attributed, in classic 



* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 209, 3d edit. 



