

226 DO ANIMALS TALK? 



can imitate other birds when engaged in their curious 

 4 song/ which seems so like a conversational variety 

 entertainment, are all the time enjoying a monologue. 

 No other starling listens. On the other hand, starlings, 

 when they have anything to say, as when nesting, or 

 quarrelling for places when going to roost, use quite 

 different notes. Of all bird-voices the song of the 

 swallow is most like human speech not our speech, 

 but like the songs which the Lapps or such outlandish 

 races sing. A Lapp woman sings a song just like that 

 of a swallow at dawn. Yet the swallows seem really to 

 say little or nothing to one another, and never come to 

 each other's call. But the varieties of bird-speech, and 

 the possibilities of interchange of ideas, are very great. 

 If, for instance, there is any real foundation for the 

 stories of the rook-trials and stork-trials, speech must 

 play a considerable part in the proceedings. 





