Page:Territory in Bird Life by Henry Eliot Howard (London, John Murray edition).djvu/177



we listen to the voices of the Waders as, in search of food, they follow the slowly ebbing tide, we shall notice that each species has a number of different cries, some of which are uttered frequently and others only occasionally. Not only so, but if we study the circumstances under which they are uttered, we shall in time learn to associate certain specific notes with certain definite situations.

The Curlew, when surprised, utters a cry with which most of us. I suppose, are familiar; but when with lowered head it drives away another individual from the feeding ground, it gives expression to its feelings by a low, raucous sound, which again is different from its cry when a Common Gull steals the  that has been drawn out of the mud with such labour.

Thus we come to speak of "alarm notes," "notes of anger," "warning notes"—naming each according to the situations which normally accompany their utterance. And so, all species,