WILD LIFE IN SEVERN ESTUARY 5 



instinctive movement of imitation by the others 

 produces the striking effect of an army manoeuvring 

 under command. 



There is a pecuhar fascination in watching wild 

 nature thus in the abandon of its native haunts and 

 at close quarters. One of the first results that it 

 produces is the conviction that many of the currently 

 received theories of the origin of language will be 

 revised when we are wiser. The most primitive 

 language is undoubtedly a language of the emotions. 

 But the language of emotions is not, as might be 

 expected, confined only to members of the same 

 species ; it is amongst birds, at least, a kind of 

 lingua francq, understood even by widely different 

 species. When one has lived under other conditions 

 with some of the wild birds here seen in their native 

 surroimdings it comes with a certain surprise to 

 observe how the signs and sounds with which one 

 has been familiar elsewhere are interpreted in their 

 wUd haunts by their own kind and by other birds 

 for values which are evidently well understood. It 

 is the breeding season. The eye lingers on the 

 actions of a sheldrake standing before his mate with 

 other birds of his kind in the background. The 

 excited pump-handled movement of the head and 

 neck is accompanied by a continued protesting and 

 haranguing series of notes which has evidently its 

 exact emotional significance. Yet you become 

 conscious that the declamation possesses depths 

 of meaning even like the song of a nightingale. 

 The emotion rises and falls until the scene re- 

 minds you irresistibly of the declamations of the 

 South African negroes as you have seen them 

 under the influence of native narcotics, when it 



