Voices of the Night 2 1 1 



the winter nights, but predominating as summer advances, when 

 they are augmented or quite outdone in a moist locality by the 

 chorus of the frogs. Who has not marvelled, where after the 

 summer rains have flooded some vlei parched up during months 

 of drought until one might have imagined all living tissue des- 

 sicated beyond even the last stage of suspended animation, to hear 

 there the voices of innumerable batrachians, arising into a verit- 

 able continuous roar after darkness has fallen, whilst the harsh 

 screeching of the *' kivietjes " (lapwing plover) at the margin 

 of the water may be echoed by the more flute-like quavering of 

 the ** dikkop " (thick knee plover) on the higher slopes. The 

 note of the latter is more musical than the shrill clamour of the 

 ** hammerkops " so often heard, and which it resembles. The 

 last does not need to advertise its presence by its loud voiced 

 nocturnal conversations, as it rises sluggishly, or flops down tamely 

 in the vicinity of the wayfarer along most water courses in broad 

 daylight, with little attempt at concealment. The ** dik-kop " on 

 the other hand is comparatively seldom seen, and it is often only 

 through its nocturnal utterances that its presence in a locality will 

 be detected, for it is a nocturnal feeder, and an adept at running 

 swiftly and elusively amongst scattered bush or lying flat and 

 motionless in the open, and obliterating itself to even the most 

 careful scrutiny, like birds of the rail tribe. Mentioning the latter, 

 I have not had much experience of them in Africa, and their 

 nocturnal cries seem less pronounced here than elsewhere, especial- 

 ly to one who has heard the persistent cracking of the restless 

 corncrake during the short summer night in England, or the 

 extraordinary volume of rumbling and squeaking variations ema- 

 natmg at night from a certain small, and seldom seen bird known 

 as the water rail which is widely distributed in the northern parts 

 of the old world, and a very similar species in the southern parts 

 of the new world, and probably elsewhere. 



That prince of sulkers the waterhen apparently is usually 

 active at night in the reed beds as the subdued clucks or chuckles 

 there indicate; but the coots (represented here by the " bles- 

 hoender **) are more dismal in habit and the occasional grunt 



