236 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



associated with the act of feeding or of obtaining food. The 

 sounds produced by eating would probably seem loud to the 

 birds making them, just as with us the noise made by masticating 

 dry toast is more noticeable to the eater of it than to his 

 neighbour at table. 



In the course of time persistent sounds might, in consequence 

 of the involuntary or voluntary imitativeness of a bird, modify its 

 call-note, in the same way as they have undoubtedly affected the 

 character of the song of at least one individual wild song-bird, 

 subsequently mentioned. It is also possible that certain call- 

 notes may have been intentionally modified to a resemblance of 

 the sounds made in obtaining food, and for the purpose of sug- 

 gesting those sounds to other birds ; * but often there is certainly, 

 from whatever cause arising, a great similarity between the call- 

 notes of birds, and the sounds which are occasioned by their 

 obtaining food or eating it. Instances of this may be found in the 

 hawks, whose call-notes are screams, like those of their victims ; 

 in the Common Butcher-bird, which has a note resembling the 

 distress-cry of the frog, on which it preys ; in the Blackbird and 

 Thrush, which at times make a clicking sound that is the founda- 

 tion of the reiterated alarm-notes of the former bird. This is an 

 imitation of the "clicking" sound produced when a snail is 

 broken against a stone, the snail, as is well known, being a 

 favourite food of these birds, and its shell is generally fractured 

 in this way. The Blackbird, Thrush, and Missel Thrush 

 frequently end their phrases in some bubbling, uncertain, high 

 notes, which are sometimes exactly like the noises made by a 

 bruised snail when retreating into his shell. The Spotted Fly- 

 catcher utters short, harsh, grating cries : the crushing of flies or 

 bees and lesser insects between two thin pieces of wood causes 

 somewhat similar sounds. The Swallow's call-note, " clit," 

 reminds one of the breaking of the wing-case of a small beetle. 

 The Sedge Warbler and Blackcap have each a harsh, short note, 

 not unlike the snapping sounds made by their bills in seizing 

 insects. The call-note of the Wren, uttered most frequently 

 during autumn, is closely like the chirp of the common hedge- 

 cricket, an insect that abounds at that season, and is probably 



* Tho behaviour of tho barn-door cock, which when calling his hens 

 protends to be picking food, warrants the suggestion. 



