32 BIRDS AND MAN 



I think of them and their language, the cries, 

 calls, songs, and other sounds are reproduced 

 in the mind. 



Studying the list, in which the species are 

 ranged in order according to their affinities, it 

 is easy to see why the language of some, although 

 not many, has been lost or has become more or 

 less indistinct. In some cases it is because there 

 was nothing distinctive nor in any way attractive 

 in the notes ; in other cases because the images 

 have been covered and obliterated by others — 

 the stronger images of closely allied species. 

 In the two American families of tyrant -birds 

 and woodhewers, neither of which are songsters, 

 there is in some of the closely related species 

 a remarkable family resemblance in their voices. 

 Listening to their various cries and calls, the 

 trained ear of the ornithologist can easily dis- 

 tinguish them and identify the species ; but 

 after years the image of the more powerful or 

 the better voices of, say, two or three species 

 in a group of four or five absorb and overcome 

 the others. I cannot find a similar case among 

 British species to illustrate this point, unless it 

 be that of the meadow- and rock-pipit. Strongly 



