102 AT THE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER . 
harshly in the edge of the woods, but the fog, 
which was growing more and more dense upon 
the meadow, discouraged its coming to the dead 
trees. Just at five o’clock a goldfinch undulated 
past, and the noisy rattle of a kingfisher echoed 
along the edge of the pond, provoking answers 
from a red squirrel, whose chatter seemed an 
imitation of the call, and from a crow, whose 
mimicry of the fisher’s rattle was remarkably 
good. Probably all bird-calls originated in the 
efforts of their makers to reproduce sounds which 
pleased or startled them. In this case, Chickaree 
and Corvus had no sober motive for replying to 
the kingfisher; they may neither of them have 
associated the rattle with the blue projectile 
which made it. Both were entertained or at¬ 
tracted by the sound, and each in its way tried 
to reproduce it. It is by a similar process, 
doubtless, that parrots, crows, and blue jays 
acquire the power of producing sounds which 
correspond to our words. Later, they may gain, 
through experience, a knowledge of the meaning 
or force of such words, but often no such know¬ 
ledge lies behind the empty iteration of the 
parrot. 
For nearly a quarter of an hour there seemed 
to be a lull in the process of bird-awakening. 
The Maryland yellow-throats were moving, and 
now and then the male sang a little. Crows 
