5 J 66 Reason and Instinct. 



jumping on the vail to give additional impetus to its weight; this par- 

 tially succeeded, but not to the satisfaction of the sagacious bird. 

 Accordingly it went off*, and soon returning with another bird of its 

 own species, the united weight of the two had the desired effect, and 

 the successful pair enjoyed the benefit of their ingenuity." (' Familiar 

 Hist, of Birds,' 309.) How are such facts as these to be accounted 

 for, if not on the ground that, in the one case, blackbirds and their 

 congeners can communicate with each other; in the other, that water- 

 bens can, and with some explanatory matter added to the bare 

 communication, moreover ? 



I might multiply such instances as those just given indefinitely. I 

 might appeal to the experience of every moderately attentive observer 

 to confirm and add to the number so multiplied. I might produce 

 thousands of recorded facts which must remain inexplicable on any 

 other hypothesis than that animals have some kind of language or 

 substitute for language, immeasurably inferior, of necessity, to that 

 vitalised by articulate speech, but still sufficient, and well adapted to 

 the requirements of those whose lot it is to use it and depend upon its 

 use. But I turn to a different line of argument: how many thousand 

 species of birds and beasts are there in creation, and no one of them 

 dumb, voiceless, unable to utter sounds; and the majority of all these 

 countless creatures are able to utter a variety of sounds. The par- 

 tridge has five distinct, and, even to the comparatively dull ear of man, 

 quite intelligible notes. The nuthatch has three besides what it may 

 employ with its young. The golden plover four; the blackbird three, 

 besides its song, and all with the same reservation as in the case of the 

 nuthatch. But, as to this reservation, who shall venture to limit, as 

 to number, the modes of expression in use between the mother and her 

 brood of young ones ? One short, by no means very loud sound 

 brings them all clustering round her ; another sends them scudding in 

 all directions for concealment ; a third seems to have stricken them 

 all with instant paralysis, so suddenly do they cower motionless on the 

 spot each occupied the moment before the parent bird spoke to them. 

 Surely it is derogating foolishly and presumptuously from Infinite 

 Wisdom to question or deny, with such facts before us, that animals 

 of various kinds are capable of vocal communications with each other ; 

 for it leaves us no alternative but to say, and in despite of the simplest 

 exercise of common candour, that the power to produce these different 

 notes, these various vocal inflections, these diverse intonations and 

 expressions, were given without purpose and with no effect or 

 result. 



