ANIMAL VOICES 115 



X. ANIMAL VOICES 



Prominent among our animal folk, so far as 

 concerns their voices, are our feathered friends. 

 Indeed, when considering many of the chief factors 

 which go to make the study of animal life so in- 

 teresting, it will be found that birds occupy, and 

 justly, a considerable share of attention. Their 

 animate forms, winning ways, wonderful home- 

 steads and eggs, devotion to their young, value to 

 mankind, powers upon the wing, migration move- 

 ments, and beautiful songs, cannot fail to arrest 

 the attention of those who seek knowledge con- 

 cerning the animal inhabitants of our country. 



But before we come to the songs and notes of 

 birds, let us consider for a little while the nature 

 of the voices of other animals whose claims in this 

 respect are very often too generally overlooked. 

 Among mammals, the Bats are particularly mute, 

 and with the exception of a squeak (for the want of 

 a better word), I have rarely heard these weird 

 flying creatures resort to any other mode of ex- 

 pressing their feelings. 



That the Hedgehog can squeal loudly I have 

 often experienced, more especially when the animal 

 has been firmly gripped in the clutches of a cruel- 

 toothed trap; the Mole seems a sort of silent 

 underground navvy; as regards the muteness a 



