258 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



All language of animals must, of course, be limited in 

 a two-fold direction. They cannot express more than they 

 feel or think ; hence their wants only, their emotions of 

 joy and suffering, are thus communicated to others. They 

 have language, but not speech. That is man's high and 

 heaven-born endowment. Then, reptiles, birds and mam- 

 malia, alone, have the power of vocal utterance, insects 

 and others are mere instrumental performers. Of the vo- 

 calists, again, reptiles produce sounds with the palate only, 

 snakes excepted ; mammalia with their lips, as children 

 do when they begin to lisp ; birds alone speak with their 

 tongue also, and, thus enjoying double organs of utterance, 

 possess the most perfect of unknown tongues. 



The language which animals speak, by means of friction, 

 or concussion, is, naturally, the least known of all. We 

 see the eager ant rushing homeward to tell the news of 

 an invasion; she meets a friend, their antennae touch and 

 play with each other, in rapid succession. The messenger 

 returns, the latter conveys the news by the same means 

 to others, until the whole army is informed. Here we 

 see, not an instinctive feeling of dread, but a clear, un- 

 doubted communication of facts. So among bees : the 

 instant the queen dies, the sad event is made known 

 throughout the hive. No sound, perceptible to human 

 ear, is heard, but the antennae move with surprising effect, 

 and as the result of a clear act of volition. It is not a 

 sensation, merely, nor an instinctive action, but it has 

 all the signs of special purpose. How they speak, we 

 know not; this, only, is certain, that their language is 



