WOOD-PIGEON LANGUAGE 9 



typical note, as uttered by any individual bird, there 

 is not so much sameness as one might think. It is 

 repeated, but not exactly repeated. Three similar, 

 or almost similar, phrases, as one may call them, are 

 made to vary considerably by the different emphasis 

 and expression with which they are spoken. In the 

 first of these the bird says, " Roo, coo, oo-oo, oo-oo," 

 with but moderate insistence, as though stating an 

 undeniable fact. Then quickly, but still with a 

 sufficiently well-marked pause, comes the second, 

 " Roo, coo, 00-66, 00-66," with very much increased 

 energy, as though warmly maintaining a proposition 

 that had been casually laid down. In the third, " roo, 

 coo," &c., there is a return to the former placidity, 

 but now comes the last word on the subject : 

 " ook ? " which differs in intonation from anything 

 that has gone before, there being a little rise in it, 

 an upturning which makes it a distinct and unmis- 

 takable interrogative, an " Is it not so ? " to all that 

 has gone before. 



Considerable numbers of wood-pigeons roost, 

 during winter, in the various fir plantations which 

 now make a feature of the country round Ickling- 

 ham. They retire somewhat early, so that it is still 

 the afternoon, rather than the evening, when one 

 hears the first great rushing sound overhead, and a 

 first detachment come sweeping over the tops of 

 the tall, slender firs, and shoot, like arrows, into them. 

 Then come other bands, closely following one another. 

 The birds fly in grandly. Sailing on outspread 

 wings, they give them but an occasional flap, and 

 descend upon the dark tree-tops from a considerable 

 height. The grand rushing sound of their wings, 



