124 CLASS AVES. 



song. The polygamous male birds, such as cocks, pheasants, 

 peacocks, ducks, geese, swans, &c., have a sonorous, hard, re- 

 sounding voice, but destitute of that flexibility of tone, and touch- 

 ing modulation, which distinguish the monogamous races. These 

 latter are forced to adopt the art of pleasing their mates ; or, 

 rather it is the order of nature, that they should do so. The 

 others, like the imperious sultans of Asia, command their 

 females with despotic sway. The reason of both proceedings 

 is obviously to be found in the disproportion of numbers be- 

 tween the two sexes. 



A peculiar conformation of the beak and tongue in some 

 birds gives a greater or less facility in the imitation of articulate 

 sounds. Thus we remark, that those species with a broad 

 tongue, and a hollow and widened beak, nearly like the palate 

 of man, have the greatest aptness for articulation. The semi- 

 nivorous birds with thick beaks, as chaffinches, bullfinches, &c., 

 have also a fuller voice than the insectivora, with fine attenu- 

 ated bill, whose voice is more slender and piping. 



As parrots, pies, jays, crows, blackbirds, starlings, and many 

 other species, have a tolerably wide beak, and a thick fleshy 

 tongue, analogous to that of man, they can be taught to articulate 

 some words, to express them mechanically, but without compre- 

 hending their meaning, or attaching the slightest idea to them. 

 They understand nothing of human speech, though they arti- 

 culate it ; and if ever they have been known to apply a phrase 

 correctly, it was purely the effect of chance, and by no means 

 the result of intelligence ; for their usual application of phrases 

 is quite unmeaning, or in a manner precisely opposite to their 

 sense. It is not at all astonishing, that repeating the same 

 phrases, on a multitude of occasions, they should sometimes 

 make a fortunate hit, and surprise their hearers ; thus giving 

 an opportunity for ignorance and credulity to magnify their 

 intellectual powers. They chatter continually, but never speak ; 

 for speech is the expression of thought. The simple and 

 almost physical ideas which such animals possess, <:an have no 

 relation with the abstract thoughts of man, and, no more than 



