HOW ANIMAL VOICES SOUND TO FOREIGN EARS
When in El Salvador in 1951, I found that the common barnyard animals had much the same voices as the ones with which I was familiar in the United States. But when I saw their utterances written down it was another matter. The voices written in Spanish sometimes looked as different as the names of the animals written in Spanish. Take the donkey, for example (or burro, as they call it in Spanish). In English we call its "song" "Heehaw!" In Spanish they wrote it for me, "Aja! Aja! Ija! Ija!" There were a number of German scientists at the Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Científicas, where I was working, and for comparison I asked them to write for me what the same animals said in German. The burro (Esel, they call it in German) says, "Ihå! Ihå!" in German. Despite the difference in the appearance of these words, when they were pronounced by the various nationalities they sounded very similar. Compared with the original assinine pronunciation, the Spanish version was awarded the prize for being the best rendition of the beast's voice.
The cat's "Miau, miau, miau" in Spanish, "Miau, miau" in German, and "Meow" in English were all very similar in appearance as well as sound. The duck's voice came out differently. In Spanish it was "Cuá, cuá, cuá," in German "Wack, wack," and in English the initial "Cu" or "Q" sound of the Spanish, and the final "k" sound of the German are united into "quack." The hoot owl came out much the same in pronunciation, though it looked different in the Spanish "Ju," in German "Hu," and in English "Who."
The cow's, the pig's, and the frog's voices were also rather similar in the three languages: the cow's in Spanish being "Meu, meu, muuu," in German "Mŭh, mŭh," and in English "Moo"; the pig's "Grup-grup, wink," "Óŭik, Óŭik," and "Grunt, oink"; and the frog's "Cruac, croac, croac" "Quak, quak," and "Croak." The barnyard rooster has a difficult voice to transcribe in letters. In Spanish it was "Quiquiriguiiii," in German "Kickeriki," and in English "Cock-a-doodle-do." After listening to the various renditions by the various nations I could see how each rendition came into being, but as for deciding which was closest to the original I hesitated to choose.
When it came to the dog, the discrepancy was surprising: in Spanish it was "Guán, guán, guán," in German "Waŭ, waŭ," and in English "Bowwow." The German and the English are close enough. But though I went outside and listened to the dogs in Salvador, never did they seem to say, "Guán, guán, guán," though I must admit that neither did they seem to say, "Bowwow."
SIGHT IDENTIFICATION
Sometimes when I'm trying to decide whether the birds of the Cameroon Mountains of West Africa are the result of one invasion and variation in situ, or of two invasions, or whether the Himalayan red-billed choughs of Ladak are different from those of Nepal, or how the molt of the cassowary resembles that of penguins, I am called to the telephone to identify a bird someone has seen.
The chances are it's a starling. I've not kept a record, but I fancy half the questions are on identification of starlings. In the distance starlings are black, and people know them. But close up, where details can be seen, they puzzle people with their variety. The young may be dull brownish; the adults may be speckled in the winter; in the spring the speckled tips of the feathers wear off and they're all black. But the black is iridescent, and in sunshine glitters purple or greenish. And the bill color changes too: it becomes yellow in the spring.