BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Vol. IV. 



DECEMBER, 1898. 



No. 6 



VOICES. 



W. E. WATT. 



^LL animals with lungs have some 

 sort of contrivance in the wind- 

 pipe that is able to set the air 

 in vibration as it is expelled or 

 inhaled. Some have not only this 

 means of making vocal sound, but 

 have also power to vary the quality 

 and intensity of it. Out of this second 

 ability come speech and song. 



Ants converse with their antennae, 

 having no lungs nor windpipe. Bees 

 do the same. Those of her attendants 

 who first perceive the absence of the 

 queen from the hive apply their an- 

 tennae to the feelers of their compan- 

 ions. The ensuing excitement settles 

 the question as to their ability to talk. 

 This shows that while voice is the usual 

 organ of language there is yet a good 

 deal of conversation going on about us 

 that is not expressed in words, just as 

 there is much music performed by in- 

 sect orchestras with no vocal contribu- 

 tions. 



Hares and Rabbits never use their 

 voices except when suffering intensely. 

 When caught by an enemy or wounded 

 in the chase they utter the only cry 

 that ever escapes from their throats. 

 Spasmodic agitation of the chest 

 muscles and the larynx gives forth the 

 sound. Such unintentional utterances 

 are frequent in other animals that use 

 their voices freely when nothing has 

 injured them, as the death shrieks of 

 cattle and the screams of horses at- 

 tacked by wolves. 



It is of little use to ask why animals 

 are equipped with voices, for the fact is 

 an animal could hardly be constructed 

 with lungs and apparatus for controlling 



ingress and egress of air without the 

 controlling organ's being more or less 

 noisy or even musical. Snorts, snores, 

 whistles, purrs, groans, and trumpet- 

 ings follow naturally where the bel- 

 lows and pipe are active. 



Although Darwin considers that the 

 habit of uttering musical sounds was 

 first acquired for courtship, and that in 

 man it was early associated only with 

 his strongest emotions, such as love, 

 rivalry, and triumph, the writer holds 

 the opinion that both significant and 

 musical utterance originated not in 

 any desire to move others, but was 

 cultivated solely for the pleasure it 

 gave the one who made it. 



If primitive man did not receive 

 language ready-made at creation, but 

 developed it as the philologists claim, 

 it was a gradual acquisition. While 

 our early ancestor dug in the ground 

 he emitted certain sounds, as he pur- 

 sued he uttered others, and as he de- 

 voured he indulged in a different grunt 

 or exclamation. When he wished to 

 call the attention of others to one of 

 these acts he merely reproduced the 

 sound that went naturally with it. And 

 so clamor co?icomita?is became clamor 

 sigjuficans. But the sound as it came 

 forth at first had no meaning and no 

 design. The man made the sound 

 rather instinctively than mentally and 

 he enjoyed making sounds as much as 

 a baby now enjoys crowing or a young- 

 ster delights in yelling when he has no 

 ideas he cares to convey. Much of 

 the singing of birds is done merely be- 

 cause the birds wish to please them- 

 selves with the sounds peculiar to 



201 



