STRENGTH OF VOICE. 
171 
after a long spring day walk, than a sunny hank o 
primroses, where we can watch the varied evolutions oi 
different companies of these birds, and “ idly speculate 
upon the meaning of their language, by the results 
which follow. Sometimes a single crow will leave the 
flanks of its company, and after uttering two or three 
caws, in a very peculiar tone, wheel off in a totally dif- 
ferent direction to that in which the rest are going, 
without turning to see whether his companions will 
follow him ; hut the signal is not lost to the leaders of 
the company ; they turn the column, and, after a semi- 
circular evolution, they alt foUow after the instigator of 
the movement, who is then, perhaps, a quarter ot a 
mile ahead. Human language cannot speak more plainly 
than this ; it is the expression and the communication 
of ideas, and yet the crow is destitute of the power ot 
singing. Further instances are quite unnecessary to 
show the radical difference between the two sorts ot 
language in birds ; a distinction which those who have 
written on the subject seem to have completely over- 
(146 ) Strength of voice is one of the characteristics 
of the Rasorial order, and of its types through the whole 
of the Insessorial circles; hut the volume of sound which 
they utter, is not only devoid of all melody, but is 
monotonous and discordant. The crowing of the cock, 
although in some measure pleasing from poetic or other 
associations, is nevertheless harsh and grating to the ear, 
particularly if often repeated, while the cackle of the 
hen is quite as tireing and monotonous as the clapper 
of a mill. The natural cries of the parrot family are 
only loud and hideous screams, which echo through 
their native woods, and stun the visitors of menageries. 
Turkeys, partridges, and peasants, have more or css 
the same character of voice, so that the only harinony 
to he found among the whole of the Rasores mus e 
looked for in the most aberrant family — the pigeras, 
whose cooing is particularly soft and soothing. e 
may trace the discordant voice of the true Rasorial birds 
