The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-06-20

tives'-namely, the wild geese, the red
shank and the green plover-pay very
! little attention to the calls of either of
their own species or any one who can
initiate them. We never heard of any
one who has ever tried to cali wild
geese. Green plover can be called, but
very seldom; and though redshanks can
sometimes be whistled within shot, this
is rarely done.
The difference between the notes of
invitation made by various shore fowl
stints, gray plover, golden plover,
ringed plover, knots and sand-pipers-is
so slight that no one but a fowler would
notice it. Yet to these men the differ
ence is as great as that between the
sounds of French and English. A really
, flrst-class gunner will sit in creek in
August and call the birds up if within
hearing and inclined to move, in any
order you like to name. Even such
closely allied birds as the curlew and
the whimbrel have different notes
though, as they are so often associated
on the marshes, one species will often
answer to the call made by the other
probably in the expectation of finding
some of its own tribe in the same place
IL is not little surprising that these
different birds, most of which feed in
company, should not have learned a
common 'all-fowlS' tongue" but they
have not.
We once saw a large mixed flock of
gray plover, knots and stints flying
past on the muds, at a distance of some
80 yards. A gunner noticed that there
were two or three golden plover among
them. These are easy to call, and all
fowl are more likely 10 answer to the
call when only two or three of the same
species are together. The gunner,
therefore, whistled the golden plover's
note, and from the big flock of some so
birds the pair of golden plovers in
stantly flew out, wheeled round. and
passed within so yards. answering the
call in their own language. Perhaps
the best instance OF the dexterity of
the gunners in learning bird language
was recently recorded in the West
Westminster Gazette. 1t is credited to
a fowler who shot the only specimen
of the broad billed sand-piper ever kill
ed in Norfolk When down on the muds
listening to the notes of the shore birds
he distinguished one which he did not
know. He initiated it, the bird an
SWered, flew up to him and was shot"
1t does not follow that talkative, gar
rulouS species really have more to say
to one another than others. Like other
chatterboXeS. they like to hear them
selves, and do not listen to.<other peo-
pie. Starlings, for instance, which
initiate other birds when engaged in
their curious Song" which seems so
like conversational variety entertain
ment, are all the time enjoying a mono
logue. No other starting listens On
the other hand, starlings. when they
have anything to say, as when nesting
or quarreling for places when going to
roost, use quite different notes. OF all
bird voices the song of the swallow is
most like human Speech-not our
speech. but like the songs which the
Lapp or such outlandish races sing. A
Lapp woman sings a song just like
that of swallow at dawn. Yet the
swallow seems really to say little or
nothing to one another, and never come
to each others call. But the-varieties
of bird speech, and the possibilities of
interchange of ideas, are very great.
If, for instance, there is any real fOun-
datiOn for the stories of the rock trials
and sterk trials, speech must play a
considerable part in the proceedings
Spectator.