25G 
NATURAL HIS TO BY 
versation wKicli passed between two owls, reclaimed a sultan, 
before delighting in conquest and devastation ;^ but I would 
be tbought only to mean that many of the winged tribes 
have various sounds and voices adapted to express their 
various passions, wants, and feelings ; such as anger, fear, 
love, hatred, hunger, and the like. All species are not 
equally eloquent ; some are copious and fluent, as it were, 
in their utterance, while others are confined to a few im- 
portant sounds : no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, 
though some are rather silent. The language of birds is 
very ancient, and, like other ancient modes of speech, very 
elliptical ; little is said, but much is meant and understood. 
The notes of the eagle kind are shrill and piercing ; and 
about the season of nidification much diversified, as I have 
been often assured by a curious observer of Nature who long 
resided at Gibraltar, where eagles abound. The notes of 
our hawks much resemble those of the king of birds. Owls 
have very expressive notes ; they hoot in a fine vocal sound, 
much resembling the vox humana, and reducible by a pitch- 
pipe to a musical key.^ This note seems to express com- 
placency and rivalry among the males : they use also a quick 
call and a horrible scream ; and can snore and hiss when 
they mean to menace. Ravens, beside their loud croak, can 
exert a deep and solemn note that makes the woods to echo; 
the amorous sound of a crow is strange and ridiculous ; rooks, 
in the breeding season, attempt sometimes, in the gaiety of 
their hearts, to sing, but with no great success ; the parrot 
kind have many modulations of voice, as appears by their 
aptitude to learn human sounds; doves coo in an amorous 
and mournful manner, and are emblems of despairing lovers ; 
the woodpecker sets up a sort of loud and hearty laugh ; the 
fern-owl or goat-sucker, from the dusk till daybreak, sere- 
nades his mate with the clattering of castanets. All the 
tuneful Passer es express their complacency by sweet modu- 
lations, and a variety of melody. The swallow, as has been 
1 See "Spectator," vol. vii. ^^o. 512.— G. W. 
*^ The brown owl hoots ; the white owl screams. — G. W. 
But see p. 177, note 2. — Ed. 
