278 PHILOSOPHY OF ZOOLOGY. 



By degrees, they are directed to express the wants or the 

 enjoyments of the other active powers. In all the indi- 

 viduals of a species, the same sounds are uttered in expres- 

 sing the same feelings. But among individuals belonging 

 to different species, the greatest diversity prevails in the 

 sounds of their natural language, as may be observed in 

 the dissimilar cries of the lamb, the foal, and the calf. 



In many cases, this language appears exclusively to be 

 a bond of union between the young animals and their pa- 

 rents, by which the former can express their wants, and 

 guide the motions of the latter in supplying them. In 

 proof of the truth of this remark, we need only observe, 

 that this language of infancy is gradually neglected, as the 

 protection of the parent ceases to be necessary ; and other 

 sounds are employed, in the independence of maturity, to 

 express the same feelings, and others belonging to their 

 new condition. Thus, the cries of ducklings, when under 

 the guidance of their mother, are different from those which 

 they utter when able to provide for themselves ; and when 

 roaming about in the corn-yard, or swimming on the pond. 

 That these established sounds, are equally natural with 

 those uttered in infancy, is demonstrated by this circum- 

 stance, that ducklings hatched under a hen, and brought 

 up remote from any other individuals of their own species, 

 utter the sounds common to their kind. 



Some animals are destitute of any language at birth, 

 and do not utter sounds until they have arrived at maturi- 

 ty. In those cases, which occur among oviparous animals, 

 there is no connection between the parent and the offspring, 

 the latter having no wants but those which its own instincts 

 can supply. Sounds, therefore, or cries, would be uttered in 

 vain. But in approaching maturity, when it is necessary 

 that an interchange of feeling should take place with others 

 of ite kind, a language is provided suited to the occasion. 



