256 NATURAL HISTORY 



versation which passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan, 

 before delighting in conquest and devastation ;* but I would 

 be thought only to mean that many of the winged tribes 

 have various sounds and voices adapted to express their 

 various passions, wants, and feelings ; such as anger, fear, 

 love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not 

 equally eloquent ; some are copious and fluent, as it were, 

 in their utterance, while others are confined to a few im- 

 portant sounds : no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, 

 though some are rather silent. The language of birds is 

 very ancient, and, like other ancient modes of speech, very 

 elliptical; little is said, but much is meant and understood. 

 The notes of the eagle kind are shrill and piercing ; and 

 about the season of nidification much diversified, as I have 

 been often assured by a curious observer of Nature who long 

 resided at Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of 

 our hawks much resemble those of the king of birds. Owls 

 have very expressive notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, 

 much resembling the vox humana, and reducible by a pitch- 

 pipe to a musical key. 2 This note seems to express com- 

 placency and rivalry among the males : they use also a quick 

 call and a horrible scream ; and can snore and hiss when 

 they mean to menace. Ravens, beside their loud croak, can 

 exert a deep and solemn note that makes the woods to echo; 

 the amorous sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ; rooks, 

 in the breeding season, attempt sometimes, in the gaiety of 

 their hearts, to sing, but with no great success ; the parrot 

 kind have many modulations of voice, as appears by their 

 aptitude to learn human sounds ; doves coo in an amorous 

 and mournful manner, and are emblems of despairing lovers ; 

 the woodpecker sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the 

 fern-owl or goat-sucker, from the dusk till daybreak, sere- 

 nades his mate with the clattering of castanets. All the 

 tuneful Passer es express their complacency by sweet modu- 

 lations, and a variety of melody. The swallow, as has been 



1 See "Spectator," vol. vii. No. 512. G. W. 



a The brown owl hoots ; tlie white owl screams. G. W. 



But see p. 177, note 2. ED. 



