350 Life and Immortality. 



Through the medium of the eye were the thoughts con- 

 veyed. It was spirit speaking directly to spirit, conveying 

 by a single glance of the eye thoughts which whole vol- 

 umes would fail to express. 



Each species of animal has its own dialect. Yet there is 

 another language, a sort of animal lingua franca, which is 

 common to all. A cry of warning, no matter from what 

 bird or animal it emanates, is understood by them all, as is 

 well known to many a sportsman who has lost his only 

 chance of a shot by reason of an impertinent crow, jay or 

 magpie which has espied him, and has given its cry of alarm. 

 There is not a bird of garden or orchard, or a fowl of the 

 barnyard or doorside, that does not understand the peculiar 

 cry of the rooster when a hawk is seen careering overhead, 

 or perched upon the summit of a near-by tree. With one 

 accord they flee to their coverts, and there remain until the 

 danger is past. 



No more quarrelsome and pugnacious species of bird 

 exists than the English sparrow. He appropriates every 

 available locality for nesting purposes, and our native species 

 are driven to the necessity of fighting for their rights, or of 

 seeking quarters in the rural districts which these birds do 

 not infect. Thus it is that many a useful robin, bluebird 

 or martin is driven from our midst. Many have witnessed 

 encounters between these birds and the robins. The author 

 once saw a contest between a pair of sparrows and a pair of 

 robins for the possession of a certain tree that grew in his 

 yard. Now the robin, single-handed, is more than a match 

 for a sparrow. In the engagement referred to, the robins 

 were getting the better of the sparrows, which the latter 

 were not slow in perceiving. Instantly the sparrows set up 

 the wild, ear-piercing harangue for which they are peculiarly 

 noted, when more than a score of friends from the immediate 

 vicinity gathered to their assistance. But the war-cry which 

 they sounded not only summoned help to their standard, 

 but it was equally understood by all the other birds of the 



