BIRDS AND ALL NATURE. 
ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 
Vol. IV. DECEMBER, 1898. No. 6 
VOICES. 
ftLL animals with lungs have some 
sort of contrivance in the wind- 
pipe that is able to set the air 
in vibration as it is expelled or 
inhaled. Some have not only this 
means of making vocal sound, but 
have also power to vary the quality 
and intensity of it. Out of this second 
ability come speech and song. 
Ants converse with their antennae, 
having no lungs nor windpipe. Bees 
do the same. Those of her attendants 
who first perceive the absence of the 
queen from the hive apply their an- 
tennae to the feelers of their compan- 
ions. The ensuing excitement settles 
the question as to their ability to talk. 
This shows that while voice is the usual 
organ of language there is yet a good 
deal of conversation going on about us 
that is not expressed in words, just as 
there is much music performed by in- 
sect orchestras with no vocal contribu- 
tions. 
Hares and Rabbits never use their 
voices except when suffering intensely. 
When caught by an enemy or wounded 
in the chase they utter the only cry 
that ever escapes from their throats. 
Spasmodic agitation of the chest 
muscles and the larynx gives forth the 
sound. Such unintentional utterances 
are frequent in other animals that use 
their voices freely when nothing has 
injured them, as the death shrieks of 
cattle and the screams of horses at- 
tacked by wolves. 
It is of little use to ask why animals 
are equipped with voices, for the fact is 
an animal could hardly be constructed 
with lungs and apparatus for controlling 
ingress and egress of air without the 
controlling organ's being more or less 
noisy or even musical. Snorts, snores, 
whistles, purrs, groans, and trumpet- 
ings follow naturally where the bel- 
lows and pipe are active. 
Although Darwin considers that the 
habit of uttering musical sounds was 
first acquired for courtship, and that in 
man it was early associated only with 
his strongest emotions, such as love, 
rivalry, and triumph, the writer holds 
the opinion that both significant and 
musical utterance originated not in 
any desire to move others, but was 
cultivated solely for the pleasure it 
gave the pne who made it. 
If primitive man did not receive 
language ready-made at creation, but 
developed it as the philologists claim, 
it was a gradual acquisition. While 
our early ancestor dug in the ground 
he emitted certain sounds, as he pur- 
sued he uttered others, and as he de- 
voured he indulged in a different grunt 
or exclamation. When he wished to 
call the attention of others to one of 
these acts he merely reproduced the 
sound that went naturally with it. And 
so clamor concomitans became clamor 
significant. But the sound as it came 
forth at first had no meaning and no 
design. The man made the sound 
rather instinctively than mentally and 
he enjoyed making sounds as much as 
a baby now enjoys crowing or a young- 
ster delights in yelling when he has no 
ideas he cares to convey. Much of 
the singing of birds is done merely be- 
cause the birds wish to please them- 
selves with the sounds peculiar to 
201 
