CHAP. v. Power of Speech in Animals. 81 



a great distance away, and that particular lamb comes at once, and no 

 others offer to move ? When it wants to reassure its lamb, and to tell 

 it not to come, it employs a very different sound, and the lamb shows 

 by its conduct that it comprehends. 



Tigers make very different noises when searching for their prey, 

 when appalling it, when rejoicing over it, when calling each other, when 

 angered. Man can distinguish the difference therein. But there is 

 doubtless much more means of intercommunion which man cannot follow. 

 For instance, tigers and wolves and wild dogs not unfrequently hunt in 

 concert, some lying in ambush, while others beat towards them, and they 

 must have conversed together to preconcert the plan of the campaign. 



Birds also converse. See how constantly mynas are chattering 

 away to each other, especially the hill myna (Eulates religiosa), and 

 swallows before migrating seem to be busily discussing some subject 

 or other. I presume it is their journey. Rooks hold great assemblages, 

 and make much noise thereat, and the end of it all is rational behaviour, 

 for they are admittedly very learned about various things, and are 

 evidently not without rights of property in last year's nests. They have 

 also decisions executed by executioners in the cases of intruders or 

 offending individuals. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive how any 

 creatures who habitually live in collected numbers could possibly order 

 their conduct so as to live harmoniously, unless they had the power of 

 freely interchanging their ideas. 



How could the sociable grosbeak, or sociable weaver bird of South 

 Africa (Philetcerus socius) conjointly construct for the whole colony one 

 large umbrella-shaped collection of nests connected like the houses in 

 a town ; how could they arrange all the necessary details without 

 communicating ideas and arriving at a joint understanding? Sociable 

 animals must necessarily converse. 



I should not be surprised to find it some day proved that not only 

 do birds have language, but also separate languages for different species, 

 as we have for different nations, and variations of voice for each 

 individual and sex. Without such variations of voice it would be 

 difficult to understand how, in the pairing season, for instance, each 

 individual sparrow can not only call a sparrow and a mate, but its own 

 mate, as it evidently does without mistake, in the midst, too, of a 

 clamour of other voices. That the bird's ear is formed for the accurate 

 distinction of voices is traceable in the grey parrot, the raven, the 



THE ROD IN INDIA. G 



