ORDER ACCIPITRES. 123 



of language among animals, which may be almost termed ac- 

 quired. This is the result of the social state in which certain 

 animals live. We find solitary quadrupeds, and birds, uttering 

 sounds but seldom, and almost always of the same character. 

 It is remarkable, that even dogs that have become wild, are said 

 to have lost the habit of barking. We may also observe, that 

 the smaller species, especially among birds, are the most conti- 

 nuously sonorous. The larger species are generally serious. 

 The ostrich has scarcely any cry. The nhandu and cassowary 

 send forth a sound like strong sighing. The pelicans and 

 cranes but rarely utter their clamours, while nothing can stop 

 the eternal prattling of the little songsters of the woods. 



This sort of language to which we have last alluded, is closely 

 connected with the necessity of reproduction. The song in 

 birds is nothing but the expression of love. After the time of 

 incubation, the woods are generally silent. The nightingale, 

 which so charms us by the melody of his voice, when endea- 

 vouring to attract his mate, utters nothing but a horrible cry, 

 resembling the hissing of a reptile, after the period of his amours. 

 We find, that birds kept in cages never sing so strongly as when 

 deprived of their females ; and some have been observed so 

 transported with passion at the sight of a female of their own 

 species that they could not get at, that they sung with a kind 

 of fury, and seemed ready to drop dead. Stimulating and 

 abundant nutriment tends very much to improve the song of 

 birds in cages. Olina pretends that the odour of musk, amber, 

 or civet, has a wonderful effect in stimulating the nightingale 

 to sing. We obsene, that the capon does not crow like the 

 cock ; and the female birds are totally destitute of this peculiar 

 language of song. 



Acquired language, or sounds, is more general among species 

 approximated to each other, than among those which live in 

 an isolated state ; on which account, parrots, pies, jays, black- 

 birds, &c., all the granivorous and insectivorous races which 

 are not mutual enemies, like the carnivorous, have also a 

 greater midtiplicity of sounds ; and many of them, a melodious 



