350 Life and Immortality. 
Through the medium of the eye were the thoughts con- 
veyed. It was spirit speaking directly to spirit, conveying 
by a single glance of the eye thoughts which whole vol- 
umes would fail to express. 
Each species of animal has its own dialect. Yet there is 
another language, a sort of animal “gua franca, which is 
common to all. A cry of warning, no matter from what 
bird or animal it emanates, is understood by them all, as is 
well known to many a sportsman who has lost his only 
chance of a shot by reason of an impertinent crow, jay or 
magpie which has espied him, and has given its cry of alarm. 
There is not a bird of garden or orchard, or a fowl of the 
barnyard or doorside, that does not understand the peculiar 
cry of the rooster when a hawk is seen careering overhead, 
or perched upon the summit of a near-by tree. With one 
accord they flee to their coverts, and there remain until the 
danger is past. 
No more quarrelsome and pugnacious species of bird 
exists than the English sparrow. He appropriates every 
available locality for nesting purposes, and our native species 
are driven to the necessity of fighting for their rights, or of 
seeking quarters in the rural districts which these birds do 
not infect. Thus it is that many a useful robin, bluebird 
or martin is driven from our midst. Many have witnessed 
encounters between these birds and the robins. The author 
once saw a contest between a pair of sparrows and a pair of 
robins for the possession of a certain tree that grew in his 
yard. Now the robin, single-handed, is more than a match 
for a sparrow. In the engagement referred to, the robins 
were getting the better of the sparrows, which the latter 
were not slow in perceiving. Instantly the sparrows set up 
the wild, ear-piercing harangue for which they are peculiarly 
noted, when more than a score of friends from the immediate 
vicinity gathered to their assistance. But the war-cry which 
they sounded not only summoned help to their standard, 
but it was equally understood by all the other birds of the 
