326 T*he Natural History of Selborne 



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, 1 is quite mute, though 

 some are rather silent. The language of birds is very ancient, 

 and, like other ancient modes of speech, very elliptical ; 2 

 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 an 

 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 to echo ; the amorous 

 sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ; rooks, in the 

 breeding season, attempt sometimes in the gaiety of their 

 hearts to sing, but with no great success; the parrot-kind 

 have many modulations of voice, as appears by their aptitude 

 to learn human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous and 

 mournful manner, and are emblems of despairing lovers; 

 the woodpecker sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh; 

 the fern-owl, or goat-sucker, from the dusk till day-break, 

 serenades his mate with the clattering of castanets. 3 All the 



1 A few fish utter cries. The grey gurnard grunts loud enough to be 

 heard at a considerable distance. As a rule, however, fish are " somewhat 

 silent." ED. 2 This is a true and deep remark one of White's many 

 anticipatory aperfus. Later research has shown that very early human 

 speech, and the speech of very undeveloped races, is elliptical in the ex- 

 treme. ED. 3 The fern-owl, or night-jar, utters a note which White 

 here sadly underestimates. Though not musical, it is full of profound and 

 weird emotion. ED. 



