ARTIFICIAL OR ARTICULATE LANGUAGE. 



S65 



these again differ from the accent of simple pleasure, which consists in purr- 

 ing, and very considerably indeed from the loud and dissonant voice of love. 



The language of birds is, in almost every instance, strikingly musical, 

 though not equally eloquent, whatever be the passion it describes. To its 

 variety in the different tribes of the osprey, hawk, sea-gull, rook, and raven, 

 and especially as auguring wet or dry, stormy or serene weather, almost everv 

 naturalist has borne testimony : for each can say, that 



Cawing rooks and kites, that swim sublime 

 In still repeated circles, screaming loud, 

 The jay, the pie, and e'en the boding oavI 

 That hails the rising moon, have charms for me. 

 Sounds inharmonious in themselves, and harsh, 

 Yet heard in scenes where peace for ever reigns, 

 And only there, please highly for their sake.* 



Upon the exquisitely varied tones and modulations of the singing birds we 

 descanted at some length in a former lecture. f But the subject is as inte- 

 resting as it is inexhaustible ; and in the summer-season of praise, when the 

 heart of man overflows, or should overflow, with gratitude to his beneficent 

 Creator for the return of plenteousness that meets his eye in every direction, 

 with what animation do they join in the general carol ; awakening us at the 

 dawn, accompanying us through the day, and softening and harmonizing, and 

 I fear not to add, spiritualizing our feelings at nightfall. 



The robin, and not the lark, as commonly supposed, takes the lead,J and 

 seems longing for the day to unclose. His gentle voice is in sweet accord- 

 ance with the feeble beams of the early twilight ; and as soon as the glorious 

 sun makes his appearance, then up mounts the lark, and pours forth his more 

 vigorous song ; a thousand warblers hear the call, and tlie chorus is full and 

 complete. The leaders vary, but the carol continues. The nightingale yet 

 protracts his nocturnal tones ; and the thrush, the blackbird, and the goldfinch, 

 from the lofty grove, the close thicket, or the blossomed orchard, intermingle 

 their rival pretensions : while the transient but mellow burst of the cuckoo 

 adds a richness to the general harmony ; and even the croak of the raven, and 

 the chattering of the daw, only break into the symphony, with an occasional 

 discord that heightens tiie impressive effect. At length the sun is no more : 

 the unbounded concert dies away ; and the season of rest returns. It returns, 

 but not with mute silence ; for the night is soothed rather than disturbed by 

 the solitary song of the robin, now resuming his modest strain, and yielding 

 in succession to the peerless pipe of the nightingale, and the deep-toned but 

 expressive hoot of the owl. 



The note of the wren (motacilla Troglodytes) is as slender as its form, but 

 it is well worth noticing, as being the only note of the feathered creation 

 that is continued throughout the M'inter. During the season of frost and snow 

 it is, indeed, heard to most advantage ; for the fearless little songster then 

 enters the court-yard, the stable, or the dairy, and seeks, in confidence, his 

 food of insects or their larves. It is this that constitutes the little beggar's 

 petition ; and where is the heart so hardened as to refuse the request he then 

 offers ? 



With respect to singing birds, indeed, of all kinds, we may make this 

 pleasing observation, that, as though chiefly intended, in the general munifi- 

 cence of the great Parent of the human race, to captivate mankind, they 

 almost always reside in their vicinity, and are rarely to be found in the unin- 

 habited parts of the earth.^ 



* Task, book i. 



t Series ii. Lecture i., on Zoological Systems, and the Distinctive Characters of Animals. 

 X See Jenner, Phil. Trans. 1824, p. 37. 



$ Tlie following passage from Dr. Jenner's very admirable paper "On the Migration of Birds," has a 

 passage so directly in accordance with these remarks, that I cannot avoid copying it from the Phil. Trans, 

 for 1824:— 



"We must observe, that nature never gives one property only, to the same individual substance. 

 Through every gradation, from the clod we tread upon to the glorious sun which animates the whole ter- 

 restrial system, we may find a vast variety of purposes for which the same body was created. If we look 

 on the simplest vegetable, or the reptile it supports, how various, yet how important in the economy of 

 nattue, are the offices they are intended to perform i The migrating bird, I have said, is directed to this 



