338 OUK NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



pleasure or displeasm-e. The song, if it tells of 

 love and its desire to please, is yet still more 

 evident of the bird's own happiness, and is perhaps 

 more dependent on his spirits and health than on 

 any other cause. The exultation of the hen, whose 

 loud cackle resounds far and wide, cannot be 

 mistaken; and no one can have watched an 

 assemblage of spaiTOws, without being conscious 

 of the quarrelling and scolding voices which are 

 evidently addressed to some one among the 

 number, which has offended them. So attractive 

 to all its own species is the call-note common to 

 each individual, that the birdcatcher uses it to 

 decoy others to his nests, and no fear of danger will 

 prevent numbers from assembling on a spot, where, 

 but for this, they would have escaped the snare. 

 So marked is this effect that the Hon. Daines 

 Bamngton observes, that if one half of a flock of 

 birds is taken, the other half will alight on the 

 nets and be taken too. 



Whether the call-note of one species is regarded 

 by another seems doubtful, but a loud note of danger, 

 which gives warning of a bird of prey, or the 

 approach of a cat, is evidently understood by the 

 whole community of small birds. Let but the 



