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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 con- 

 fined to a few important 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. This 

 note seems to express complacency and rivalry among 

 the males : they use also a quick call and an 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 wood-pecker sets up 

 a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the fern owl, or goat- 

 sucker, from the dusk till day-break, serenades his mate 

 with the clattering of castanets. All the tuneful passeres 

 express their complacency by sweet modulations, and a 



