288 BIRD WATCHING 



sound — as I can testify — it would sound very different 

 to what he was accustomed to in the daytime. It is 

 probable that, in a country where ravens were known, 

 and inspired those superstitious feelings which they 

 always have inspired, such sounds, issuing out of the 

 darkness, would be ascribed to them, rather than to 

 the homely rook ; and here we should have the night- 

 raven — a bird 'frequently met with in fiction, but, 

 apparently, nowhere else.' Possibly, however, the 

 raven itself may sometimes utter its boding croak 

 through the darkness, and ravens have been, and, in 

 some parts, still are, numerous. 



"Gradually the plantation becomes quite a wonderful 

 study of sounds, there being an extraordinary variety, 

 and some of them most remarkable. One, that seems 

 deep down in the throat, suggests castanets being 

 played there, but castanets of a very liquid kind, 

 water-castanets, if such there could be, but, if not, it 

 gives the idea. This curious sound is only uttered 

 occasionally by some particular rook, and it recalls 

 — perhaps is — the well-known burring note that I 

 have heard under such different circumstances. If 

 so, it can only be as a recollection that the bird 

 utters it. I have not the space to reason this, but, 

 assuming it to be so, may we not see, here, one of 

 the alleys leading up to language ? A certain sound 

 is uttered during the doing of a certain thing. It 

 becomes associated in the mind with that thing, with 

 the doing of it, and with the state of mind under the 

 influence of which it is done. At first, perhaps, un- 

 consciously, then consciously, it is uttered when such 

 action is recalled, and the utterance recalls it, also, 

 to the mind of whoever hears. Here, then, is a 



