SPEECH 51 



One thing, however, is certain ; it would be unfair 

 both to the man and to the beast to close this record of 

 conduct and character without some notice of the one 

 great, almost overwhelming difference between them. 



So far as we can judge, at any rate, the beasts that 

 perish have no real language. On the other hand, that 

 they have some method of communication between them- 

 selves is unquestionable. Whether by breathings or 

 touchings, or by the many indistinguishable sounds which 

 in the vast fabric of vibration do not exist for our poor 

 limited ears, cannot be said. 



But no one who has, for instance, seen a couple of 

 poaching dogs arrange to meet at the cover side, and 

 thereinafter watched them slip away singly in studied 

 carelessness to keep the appointment, can doubt that dogs, 

 at any rate, manage to convey a very distinct idea of time 

 and place to each other. 



In like manner a very little practical experience 

 shows us that birds somehow communicate to each other 

 the fact that food is to be had at certain places ; else 

 how come all the blue tits in the parish to one swinging 

 cocoanut .'' 



Nothing, again, is more curious than the intelligence 

 by which a wild pheasant learns to feed from a closed 

 hopper on which it has to stand before the lid opens 

 disclosing the store of grain. 



We are told that this is learnt by experience, by an 

 accidental hop ; but why should one or two dozen birds 

 hit upon the trick within a day unless they have some 

 method of communication ? 



Then the speech of our so-called talking birds is 



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