CHAPTER XIX. 



THE LANGUAGE OF WILD-FOWL. 



" I shall not ask Jean Jacques Kousseau 

 If birds confabulate or no : 

 "Pis clear that they were always able 

 To hold discourse at least, in fable." 



COWPER. 



A GOOD ear for ornithological sounds is as necessary to the midnight 

 sportsman, as the natural musical ear is to the most accomplished 

 harpist. He must be as familiar with the different calls and con- 

 fabulations of the various species of wild-fowl, as is the fair warbler 

 alluded to with the most popular airs of the day; and but little 

 success can be expected, unless he is so gifted. 



The language of wild-fowl is instructive and pleasing alike to the 

 ears of both sportsman and naturalist to the one for the advice it 

 gives him as to the species, as well as the whereabouts, of their 

 talkative assemblages ; and to the other for the opportunity afforded 

 of contemplating, from lessons of life, the beautiful perfections of 

 Nature, so exquisitely revealed even in the simple and apparently 

 unmeaning noises of the feathered tribe ; but which, in reality, ex- 

 press to their species the unmistakable language of the heart its 

 love, hatred, wants, sympathies, doubts, and alarms and all by 

 sounds so short and feeble, yet too distinct and expressive to be mis- 

 understood by those for whom intended; though to human ear a 

 jumble of inexpressive similarities. No alphabet or vocabulary of 

 words, no grammar or syntactical lessons, form any part of the edu- 

 cation of the feathered tribes. Nature is their sole instructor ; and 

 by Nature they are gifted with a language and power of expression 

 to which they resort in all their wants, their passions, and their 

 pains : 



" Or in soft cooings tell their amorous tale." 



The faintest croak is full of meaning, and instantly obeyed by those 



