Was that a bee I just heard buzz? Or maybe the twitter of a sparrow? Or even the cry of a deer, there?
Well, as it happens, no it wasn't. There are two reasons for this - the first is that I live in a city, and keep all my doors and windows tightly shut in a largely successful bid to shun nature. The other reason is that bees don't buzz, sparrows don't twitter, and deer most certainly do not cry. They hum, chirp, and bell, respectively.
It came as something of a shock to learn that bees don't buzz, but apparently a large number of animal sounds can only be correctly identified by certain words (in English, at least - see noises animals make in different languages if that's your thing). The following is a list of the correct phrases to describe various animal calls (in 1894, at least - see disclaimer below)-
Apes gibber
Asses bray
Bears growl
Bees hum
Beetles drone
Bitterns boom
Blackbirds whistle
Bulls bellow
Calves bleat
Cats mew, purr, swear, and caterwaul
Chaffinches chirp, and pink
Chickens peep
Cocks crow
Cows moo and low
Crows caw
Cuckoos (wait for it) cuckoo
Deer bell
Dogs bark, bay, howl, and yelp
Doves coo
Ducks quack
Eagles scream
Falcons chant
Flies buzz (aha!)
Foxes bark and yelp
Frogs croak
Geese cackle and hiss
Grasshoppers chirp and pitter
Guineafowls cry "come back"
Guineapigs squeak
Hares squeak
Hawks scream
Hens cackle and cluck
Horses neigh and whinny
Hyenas laugh
Jays chatter
Kittens mew
Linnets chuckle
Lions roar and growl
Magpies chatter
Mice squeak and squeal
Monkeys chatter and gibber
Nightingales pipe, warble, and, erm, jug-jug
Owls hoot and screech
Oxen low and bellow
Parrots talk
Peacocks scream
Peewits peewit
Pigs grunt, squeak and squeal
Pigeons coo
Ravens croak
Rooks caw
Screech Owls screech or shriek
Sheep baa and bleat
Snakes hiss
Sparrows chirp
Stags bellow and call
Swallows twitter
Swans cry
Tigers roar and growl
Thrushes whistle
Turkeys gobble
Vultures scream
Wolves howl
- - - DISCLAIMER - - -
This list is not intended to be definitive. It does not claim to list the calls of all animals, and, as has been pointed out below, it isn't too tricky to find citations for countless descriptive phrases that are not included in this list.
The list is taken from Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase and Fable, which was first published in 1870, and it is almost certain that the list above (like much of the rest of the current edition) has remained unaltered since Brewer's last major revision before his death, in 1894. It is included here for historical purposes as much as grammatical ones, and was never intended to be taken as gospel. I really should have made that clear earlier, I guess...