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CHAPTER XIV. 



LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 



BY the term language, in reference to birds, we mean 

 sounds which can be mutually understood, excluding; 

 the words and phrases which parrots and starlings 

 may be taught by imitation, but to which the birds 

 that repeat them can attach no meaning. An exam- 

 ple will best illustrate this, and we do not recollect 

 one more apposite than a circumstance mentioned by 

 Wilson when speaking of the richel bird (Sterna mi- 

 ?ntta). "I lately," he says, " visited those parts of 

 the beach on Cape May, where this little bird breeds. 

 During my whole stay, these birds flew in crowds 

 around me, and often within a few yards of my head, 

 squeaking like so many young pigs, which noise their 

 voice strikingly resembles. A humming-bird, that 

 had accidentally strayed to the place, appeared sud- 

 denly among this outrageous troop, several of whom 

 darted angrily at him ; but he shot like an arrow from 

 them, directing his flight straight towards the ocean. 

 I have no doubt but the distressing cries of the terus 

 had drawn this little creature to the scene, having 

 frequently witnessed his anxious curiosity on similar 

 occasions in the woods*." The humming-bird in- 

 deed is not alone in the exhibition of curiosity to see 

 what is going forward when other birds are vociferous. 

 We recollect having our attention once drawn to 

 the loud scolding of a pair of chaffinches in a copse, 

 a circumstance of very frequent occurrence during 

 summer, but rendered peculiar in the instance in 

 * Wilson, Am. Ornilb. vii. 85. 



