214 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 

 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. All the tuneful passeres express their 

 complacency by sweet modulations, and a variety of melody. 

 The swallow, as has been observed in a former letter, by a shrill 

 alarm bespeaks the attention of the other hirundines, and bids 

 them be aware that the hawk is at hand. Aquatic and gregarious 

 birds, especially the nocturnal, that shift their quarters in the 

 dark, are very noisy and loquacious ; as cranes, wild-geese, wild- 

 ducks, and the like : their perpetual clamour prevents them from 

 dispersing and losing their companions. 



In so extensive a subject, sketches and outlines are as much 

 as can be expected ; for it would be endless to instance in all the 

 infinite variety of the feathered nation. We shall therefore con- 

 fine the remainder of this letter to the few domestic fowls of our 

 yards, which are most known, and therefore best understood. 



* Several fishes are known to utter sounds : the gurnets, for instance, all of which have a 

 peculiar gruut, or other cry, when taken out' of the water. ED. 



