season_, whenever it comes. It is loud, piercing, prolonged,
and has the agonized voice qualities of a boy or a woman screaming
from the pain of a surgical operation. To one who does not know
the source or the cause, it is nerve-racking. When heard in a
remote wilderness it must be truly fearsome. It says "Ow-w-w-w!"
over and over. We have heard it a hundred times or more, and it
easily carries a quarter of a mile.

The language of animals is a long and interesting subject,--so
much so that here it is possible only to sketch out and suggest
its foundations and scope. On birds alone, an entire volume should
be written; but animal intelligence is a subject as far reaching
as the winds of the earth.

No man who ever saw high in the heavens a V-shaped flock of wild
geese, or heard the honk language either afloat, ashore or in the
air, will deny the spoken language of that species. If any one
should do so, let him listen to the wild-goose wonder tales of
Jack Miner, and hear him imitate (to perfection) the honk call of
the gander at his pond, calling to wild flocks in the sky and
telling them about the corn and safety down where he is.

The woodpecker drums on the high and dry limb of a dead tree his
resounding signal-call that is nothing more nor less (in our view)
than so much sign language.

It was many years ago that we first heard in the welcome days of
early spring the resounding _"Boo-hoo-hoo"_ courting call of
the cock pinnated grouse, rolling over the moist earth for a mile
or more in words too plain to be misunderstood.