136 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



desires through the medium of their voice ? The 

 experience of a lifetime spent among birds leads 

 me to answer this question in the affirmative. 

 Assuredly birds are possessed of conversational 

 powers, and are able to convey their meaning to 

 each other. To a casual observer this may seem 

 impossible; birds utter a few certain stock sounds, 

 which may or may not mean anything ; but the 

 careful student of the voices of birds well knows 

 the almost endless inflections which their cries 

 undergo, and correlating these with the actions 

 they accompany, he is able to comprehend much 

 of their meaning. The chirp of the House 

 Sparrow, for instance, is familiar to everybody ; 

 yet how few of us are acquainted with the various 

 sweet and sibilant sounds uttered by this bird 

 during the act of courtship, or when numbers 

 have gathered together in the tree-tops, just pre- 

 vious to retiring to rest, on some still autumn 

 evening. Every bird utters or makes a certain 

 sound expressive of alarm or danger ; and what 

 is rather remarkable is that this signal is as well 

 understood by stranger species as by its own 

 kindred. Witness how the loud pipe of the 

 Oystercatcher, or the warning cry of the Curlew, 

 will sound the alarm along the coast, and every 

 bird within hearing becomes on the alert at once. 

 The various wild birds have learnt by long ex- 

 perience that these peculiar notes express alarm ; 

 that they are the forerunners of danger ; and their 

 first impulse on hearing them is to get out of 



