KIDD'S JOURNAL. 



307 



hawk, or any bird of prey, appear, though 

 very high in the air, the careful and affec- 

 tionate mother announces the enemy with a 

 low inward kind of moan. If he makes a 

 nearer approach, her voice becomes earnest 

 and alarming, and her outcries are redoubled 

 both in loudness and frequency. The effects 

 of this interesting eloquence upon the young 

 are astonishing. They understand the inti • 

 miclating language of the mother, though 

 they know not the immediate cause of the 

 danger ; but, by the intuitive knowledge of 

 the meaning of what she says to them, they 

 instantly employ every artifice to conceal 

 and protect themselves from the impending 

 danger. To accomplish this purpose, they 

 run under hedges, brush-wood, and even the 

 leaves of cabbages and of such other plants 

 as happen to be near them. 



None of our domestic birds seem to 

 possess such a variety of expression and so 

 copious a language as common poultry. A 

 chicken of four or five days old, when held 

 up to a window frequented by flies, imme- 

 diately seizes its prey, and utters little 

 twitterings of complacency ; but, if a bee or 

 a wasp be presented to it, its notes instantly 

 become harsh, and expressive of disappro- 

 bation, and of a sense of danger. When a hen 

 is about to lay an egg, she intimates her 

 feelings by a joyous and soft note ; but she 

 has no sooner disburthened herself, than she 

 rushes forth with a clamorous kind of joy, 

 which the cock and the rest of the hens 

 immediately adopt. This tumultuous noise is 

 not confined to the family, but is transmitted 

 from yard to yard, and spreads to every 

 homestead within hearing, till at last the 

 whole village is in an uproar. When a hen 

 has hatched a brood, a new and interesting 

 scene is exhibited. Her relation as a mother 

 requires a new species of language. She then 

 runs clucking and screaming about, and 

 seems to be agitated with the greatest anx- 

 iety. When men or dogs suddenly approach 

 her feeble brood, her courage and maternal 

 care are astonishing. With loud cries, and 

 rapid motions, she assails the enemy; 

 neither a man, nor a lion, in these circum- 

 stances, is sufficient to repress the courage 

 of the unarmed bird. A hen, when attend- 

 ing her young, has been seen boldly to attack, 

 intimidate, and beat off a mastiff. The 

 vocabulary of the cock is likewise pretty 

 extensive, and his generosity is remarkable : 

 when he discovers a quantity of food, instead 

 of devouring it himself, he instantly calls to 

 the hens to partake of the repast ; and, if he 

 discerns a bird of prey, or any other alarm- 

 ing danger, with a warning voice he desires 

 his family to be on their guard against the 

 common enemy. The cock has also at 

 command his love speeches, and his terms of * Smellie's 

 defiance. But his most peculiar sound is his | vol ii, p. 426. 



crowing, by which, in all ages, he has dis- 

 tinguished himself as the countryman's 

 clock, as the watchman who proclaims the 

 divisions of the night.* 



There is one instance, indeed, in which 

 birds discover an astonishing docility, and 

 seem to surpass that degree of intelligence 

 which nature has allotted to their order ; 

 and that is, their faculty of imitating and 

 repeating sounds. Though we suspend our 

 belief of the great musical talents which 

 some are said to have acquired by educa- 

 tion, we find many well attested instances of 

 a delicate ear in some birds no way re- 

 markable for vocal execution. Madame 

 Piozzi relates of a tame pigeon, that it 

 answered by gesticulation to every note of 

 the harpsichord. As often as she began to 

 play, it hurried to the concert with marks 

 of rapturous delight. A false note produced 

 in the animal evident tokens of displeasure ; 

 if frequently repeated, it lost all temper, and 

 tore her hands. In some birds the ear is 

 sufficiently delicate and precise to enable 

 them to catch and retain a continued series 

 of sounds, and even of words : hence proceed 

 their musical powers ; hence, too, their 

 faculty of speaking. Of the parrot we have 

 heard narrated many wonderful exertions of 

 eloquence, which rather tend to evince the 

 surprise of mankind at the docility of an 

 animal so insipid, than to prove any real 

 attainment. He receives words, without at 

 all understanding them ; his voice, by its 

 flexibility, enables him to repeat them, but 

 he gives them back just as he received them ; 

 he articulates, but does not speak : for with 

 him articulation does not proceed from 

 thought, the principle of speech ; it is merely 

 an imitation, which represents nothing of 

 what passes within the animal, nor expresses 

 any one of his affections 



BIRDS OF SONG. 



Give me but 

 Something whereunto I may bind my heart, 

 Something to love, to rest upon, — to clasp 

 Affection's tendrils round. Mrs. Hemans. 



No. X.— CAGE BIRDS.— THE CANARY. 



If you place a water-fountain in the 

 breeding-room, it should be of zinc, and 

 made precisely similar to, though of a less 

 size than the one described under our obser- 

 vation on an aviary. As however it is ob- 

 jectionable for birds, when sitting, to wash 

 themselves all over, it will be needful to have 

 a circular cover of open wire-work, fitted on 

 the top of the fountain. The holes must be 

 sufficiently large to admit free entrance for 



Philosophy of Natural History, 



