The Natural History of Selborne 313 



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 under- 

 stood. 



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 tuneful passeres express their complacency by sweet modula- 

 tions, and a variety of melody. The swallow, as has been observed 



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 extreme. 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. 



