IMITATION OF QUADRUPEDS 189 



compare the sounds thereby produced with the note 

 of the landrail, but the comparison is a very fail- 

 one. Cattle, when grazing, protrude the tongue from 

 each side of the mouth alternately, each time round 

 a bunch of grass, which is torn off. A pause then 

 occurs during the act of swallowing, after which the 

 tearing is resumed. The consequence is a sound 

 which may be thus expressed, rasp rasp rasp rasp- 

 rasp rasp, Cattle graze more at night than in the 

 daytime, and the landrail is to a great extent 

 nocturnal ; and although the feeding-grounds of 

 cattle are not now the nesting-places of the bird, it 

 is frequently within hearing of grazing, the sound of 

 which is particularly noticeable at night, and has 

 been repeated through probably as long a period as 

 that in which birds of any kind have existed on the 

 earth. 



It may here be mentioned that the common 

 squirrel and the snake respectively reproduce in 

 their alarm-cries the sounds made by these animals 

 during rapid retreat. The former utters a sound 

 something like the word whonk, but more like the 

 noise produced by swishing with a long twig. The 

 latter produces a hissing sound ; and wherever it 

 goes it must always hear the rustling sounds pro- 

 duced by its transit. When it darts through dry 



