LXXXV.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



231 



delighting in conquest and devastation ; but I would be thought 

 only to mean that many of the winged tribes have various 

 sounds and voices adapted to express their various passions, 

 wants, and feelings ; such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, 

 and the like. All species are not equally eloquent ; some are 

 copious and fluent as it were in their utterance, while others 

 are confined to a few important sounds : no bird, like the fish 

 kind, is quite mute, though some are rather silent. The 

 language of birds is very ancient, and, like other ancient modes 

 of speech, very elliptical ; little is said, but much is meant and 

 understood. 



The notes of the eagle-kind are shrill and piercing; and about 

 the season of nidification much diversified, as I have been often 



assured by a curious observer of Nature who long resided at 

 Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of our hawks much 

 resemble those of the king of birds. Owls have very expressive 

 notes; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much resembling the 

 vox humana, and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a musical key. 

 This note seems to express complacency and rivalry among the 

 males : they use also a quick call and a horrible scream ; and 

 can snore and hiss when they mean to menace. Ravens. 

 besides their loud croak, can exert a deep and solemn note 

 that makes the woods echo ; the amorous sound of a crow is 

 strange and ridiculous; rooks, in the breeding season, attempt 



