THE SPEECH OF BIRDS

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26123, 27 May 1950, Page 3

THE SPEECH OF BIRDS

ENGLISH XXX

' (Specially Written for “The Press.”) [By ARNOLD WALL] As with the beasts and our noble selves, so with the birds, their speech may be either directly or- indirectly reported. Indirect Report We have a large number of words nouns and verbs, to describe the sounds, cries or calls used by different species or groups of birds. Most, if not all of these are imitative, as in the case of the beasts. The cock crows the hen ciucks, the turkey gobbles the rook caws, the raven croaks, the pigeon coos, the goose hisses and the wild goose honks; young bird? cheep, sparrows and other small birds twitter or chirp, the duck quacks, one kind of owl hoots, another screeches (in Shakespeare “scotches”), the blackbird flutes, whistles or gurgles, having no word of his own, the gull screams or mews, hence the old name “seamev?.” the nightjar churrs. a continuous harsh thread of sound like the voice of the electric razor, the bittern booms or

bumps whence the comical local name the “butterbump.” But most of the small birds, even such famous songsters as the nightingale, thrush, and black-cap. are given no special words of their own; they simply sing. call, cry or warble, all things which we can do ourselves. The old terms a “gaggle” of geese and a “charm” of goldfinches are of this class. “Charm,” formerly also “chirm” and “churm” was used to describe the confused sound of many voices, not only of small birds, but also of a multitude of men. Lastly, we have the odd case of the snipe which is said to drum, bleat or neigh and the experts are not yet agreed as to the manner in which it produces the sound. Perhaps it is not only made by the wings, as some maintain, but also partly by the voice.

Direct Report Though many birds are named from their cry or call, only a few have a word of their own put into their beaks. The classic example is the cuckoo of Europe, whose name, derived from the call, is given to all the cuckoos of the world, whatever J heir call may be. Our own two New 'Zealand species say nothing like “cuckoo.” Perhaps this is why some New Zealand speakers, never having heard the bird, even in a clock, pronounce the name with the stress on the second syllable. "cuckOO.” The plover or lapwing “says" pee-wit or pee-wee. and this cry gives him a third name. A very old word of this class is cock-a-doodle-doo. given to the cock, in Shakespeare (Ariel’s song), it is cock-a-didale-dow. Another very old and familiar word is given to the European tawny owl. toowhit-toowhoo, also used by Shakespeare, “a merry note.” The nightingale is supposed to say. among many other words, “jug jug.” an attempt to represent the curious. deep bubbling note which is only part of his rich repertoire. Many birds, however, name themselves. that is, they have been named from their cry. Of this kind the American bobolink and whippoorwill are good examples. The hoopoe (upupa) is thus named. Besides the cuckoo and pee-wit we have, among the British birds, the pinit, yaffle 'the woodpecker). the shrike—a word allied to shriek—the corncrake, whose harsh cry can be imitated with a stiff comb, and the chiffchaff. The Maori names of the common birds are usually of this kind, such as the morepork. in Australia, mopoke: riro riro for the prey warbler, the kea. which should h-ve long e. the kakamako mako. and many others which have not become so f amiliar to us. There are. of course, i manv more or less fanciful I s ’ributed to birds often only locally • current, such as “a very little bit of i bmad and no che-e-e-se.” attributed to I eilowhammer. or “pretty dick” to i t'o thrush. It has been suggested that opening phrase of the famous Fifth i S v mnhonv of Beethoven was inspired I bv the call of the yellowhammer, but I the composer himself said of it that “so . Fate knocks at the door.” Mechanism The bird has no vocal cords, no teeth or lips. and. though it has a tongue, it i does not seem possible that it could be used, as ours is. to modify the shape of the mouth chamber so as to produce varieties of vowel sounds. The voice organ of the bird, called the syrinx, is placed lower down in the throat thi n ' the larynx of a mammal and includes j a piece of membrane which is made ; to vibrate by the air passing through j the wind pine: the syrinx can be shortened or lengthened by means of the j

muscles attached to it and this lengthening and shortening produces differences of note on the same principle as the action of the cornet. Some birds have more sets of muscles than others ana the more muscles they have the greater is the variation in the voice. The organ is. as we should expect, more elaborate in the singing birds than in others, but. as we should not expect, some birds, the crows for instance. whose voice is harsh and monotonous, have the more elaborate structure. whether because they have been singers in the past and have lost the art. or because they are destined to become singers in the future, who can tell? Obviously, with this mechanism. the birds cannot possibly produce such consonants as the dentals and labials, or even the gutturals of our speech. Yet we attribute these consonants to them as. for example, in the “peewit” and the “cock-a-doodle- ■ noo” of the rooster. We do this as the oniy possible way of representing , sounds, produced by the bird, which | have the effect of the consonants, but we can only guess how the sounds are actually produced. The cry of the cuckoo, which we spell with the guttural k. has really no clear consonants any more than has the mechanism of the cuckoo clock. Again, birds like the blackbird sing without any sort J* suggestion of consonants; we call his voice a fluting, very properly, and he can no more produce a consonant than the flautist can. But the voice of many birds does seem to begin and close the phrases with such definitp click. ’ the thrush and the cuckoo fo- - example, that we naturally give them s consonant.

The Talkers Now how about the talking birds, the parrots, mynahs, starlings, etc., among which the parrots are usually considered to be the star performers? well, however they do it the talking oirds do simulate human speech with *’•■nderful fidelity. The essential elements in our speech are the vowel sounds the rhythm, and the tone or musical “pitch;” consonants play a minor role. We understand the mes-"i,-e conveyed to us by another -peaker or shouter from a great dis- “>” ben the consonants are injiudioie. Now the birds do use somering like our vowel sounds by naturetoe duck quacks on a: the cuckoo uses u which we spell oo; some notes .°J he thrush are on a lon s i which ■ e spell with ee. The natural mimics “m-.ng the birds produce the rhythms .7ones of our speech with perfect accuracy, and thus, with little or no imitate us successfully 1 ,' ve may compliment the birds on 1 em success we may also congratulate 7* tain men on their abilitv to imiW.U3I Certain b ’ irdS With ~n a * fidelity. Many of us have heard ™ uslc -haH stage the expert, , -n an East End Londoner, singing a thrush or chirping like a sn ‘ done ’ of course, with fn entirely different mechanism from 3° f L he bird: H seems to be entirely Produced with the lips, teeth and perth a of tongue. Mr Johannes Andersen imitates the call or no 7 °. f Some of our native birds to Perfection. Some parts of the song of ne nightingale mav be very well Sh- L lced bv means of a contraption nich used to be on sale in my young E air blown into water through a mober tube. A very creditable coo Jan be produced by the vibration of kit avula - , as in the dog’s growl, commed with “voice.” "bouche close,” ® vowel is required. Shepherds in “ e T’Ountainous regions of the Can- ■ V Islands are said to* communicate nth one another over very great dis- 1 =nces bv means of a “whistling lan- ’ which requires, naturally, no onsonants. No doubt our imagination plays I

some part in our “listening” to the speech of, say, the parrot. We supply the six or seven consonants when he screams “pretty Polly.” “scratch poor Polly.” The much discussed question whether he understands what he says does not here arise but I may say that, in my opinion, it is quite impossible that he should do so.