blackbird

In George Orwell's Animal Farm, the blackbird appears as a carrier of the revolutionary song Beasts of England. When the song spreads across the countryside after the Rebellion, blackbirds whistle it from the hedges, alongside pigeons cooing it from the elms. The tune becomes irrepressible, infiltrating the sounds of smithies and church bells. Human beings, when they hear it, secretly tremble, sensing in it a prophecy of their own doom. The blackbird thus embodies the uncontrollable dissemination of revolutionary hope, persisting despite the threat of flogging for any animal caught singing.