A NATURALIST IN BRAZIL 



lovely whistling tone, and is followed by notes of which all are 

 sweetly melodious. The whole might be represented by : htii du pridu 

 psid-pudilit prrr zip zilit. 



About the same time there sounded from the sugar-cane fields, 

 in which a certain amount of grass was still growing, apparently 

 from some invisible source beyond the hills, two notes which seemed 

 a call: they were always the same, and were repeated again and 

 again after brief intervals : 



I 



W 



In the failing light, which seemed further to increase the spaciousness 

 of the landscape, this call had an accent of grief. Wherever I went, 

 even in my room, I still heard these two notes, like an admonishing 

 memento mori. No one could tell me the name of the calling bird, and 

 I never had a sight of it. At last the call seemed to sound from the 

 next field of cane ; I went toward it, but mysteriously enough the 

 tones grew neither louder nor softer. For a long while I walked over 

 the short grass towards the summit of the hill. Suddenly I saw the 

 bird, and recognized a species of Cuckoo, speckled with brown, with 

 a slightly curved bill and a long tail. Later I learned that this bird, 

 because it incessantly utters these two notes, is known as "Sem fim" 

 — "without end" — which words very fairly reproduce the sound of 

 the call. 



Thus, even among those Brazilian birds which have no actual song 

 there are some with melodious voices. To reckon the Tovaca one 

 of the Clamatores is really an undeserved insult. This bird, which is 

 one of the Ant-birds, but looks like a short-tailed thrush, sings the 

 chromatic scale in a quickly-whistled series of notes, which often pass 

 through several octaves. I heard this melodious and most singular 

 series of notes in Alto da Serra. 



Melodious too is the pluck of the Wagtails, which from a distance 

 sounds like the dropping of water, and the Lavandeinas or "Washer- 

 women" are constant inhabitants of the shore. The a-nu of the Anums 

 too rings prettily over the meadows. A larger species of Cuckoo, 

 brown and yellow, a bird with a long tail, mews like a cat, and the 

 Brazilians have therefore christened it "Alma do gato" — as though 

 the soul of a departed cat had been reincarnated in the bird. 



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