BIRD LANGUAGE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6631, 9 June 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

BIRD LANGUAGE

EXTENSIVE VOCABULARIES, The African finch, reputed to be the most voluble of all the members of the bird and animal kingdoms, has a vocabulary of about 300 words and an alphabet of twenty-four letters and symbols. Dr. William M. Patterson, who is doing research work at Columbia University, told the American Psychological Association at a meeting reported by the ‘New York Times.’ Contrary to the popular belief, a bird does not sing a little song when it opens its beak. Instead, it makes a little speech. These speeches are not a repetition of the same word time after time either. According to Dr. Patterson, the bird which he has been observing carried out a daily schedule that varies from day to day less than the life of the average human being. The bird awakens at the same hour every morning, and itv almost invariably makes the same morning speech of fourteen seconds. As the average word the bird utters lasts but seven-tenths of a second the bird speaks a paragraph of about twenty words. The bird builds up his words very much as the Hope Indians have built up theirs, according to the theory advanced by the speaker. He warned that the theory was still in the formative stage, and could not be taken as proved. Another point in it, is that the bird speaks in prose that is comparable to Sanscrit, Chinese, the 'language of the Hon Indians, and Eng-

lish. The African finch that Dr. Patterson exhibited is the only one known to bo in captivity in this vicinity. The bird is a small fircy creature about the size of a wren. All attempts to got the finch to speak at the meeting failed. The recording of the various sounds that compose the bird’s “alphabet” has been done entirely by ear. Dr. Patterson said, since mechanical methods will not record the fine differences in the pitch of the various notes the bird uass.