25Q . HABITS OF BIRDS. 



artificial language and of some traditional know- 

 ledge. 



" The mother-turkey, when she eyes a kite hover- 

 ing high in air, has either seen her own parents 

 thrown into fear at his presence, or has by observation 

 been acquainted with his dangerous designs upon her 

 young. She becomes agitated with fear, and uses the 

 natural language of that passion ; her young ones 

 catch the fear by imitation, and in an instant conceal 

 themselves in the grass. 



"At the same time that she shows her fears by her 

 gesture and deportment, she uses a certain exclama- 

 tion, Koe-nt, Koe-ut, and the young ones afterwards 

 know that the presence of their adversary is de- 

 nounced and hide themselves as before. 



" The wild tribes of birds have very frequent 

 opportunities of knowing their enemies by observing 

 the destruction they make among their progeny, of 

 which every year but a small part escapes to matu- 

 rity ; but to our domestic birds these opportunities 

 so rarely occur, that their knowledge of their distant 

 enemies must frequently be delivered by tradition in 

 the manner above explained, through many gene- 

 rations. 



4i This note of danger, as well as the other notes 

 of the mother-turkey, when she calls her flock to their 

 food, or to sleep under her wings, appears to be an 

 artificial language, both as expressed by the mother, 

 and as understood by the progeny. For a hen 

 teaches this language with equal ease to the duck- 

 lings she has hatched from supposititious eggs, and 

 educates as her own offspring; and the wagtails or 

 hedge-sparrows learn it from the young cuckoo, their 

 foster-nursling, and supply him with food long after 

 he can fly about, whenever they hear his cuckooing, 

 which Linnaeus tells us, is his call of hunger*. And 

 * Syst. Nat. 



