BIRD SOUNDS 81 



pitched buzzing sound, which if at all near seems to 

 penetrate through and through one's head, and renders 

 sleep impossible until the performer has been silenced. 



The chattering and quarrelling of gulls on the rocks 

 mingles with the plashing of wavelets and the gaggling 

 of Egyptian geese, which are restless at night. 



Perhaps there passes overhead a flight of some kind of 

 plover, whose cry has earned for them the native name 

 " Empunya," and in the distance, over the open grass 

 land, a hunting owl emits its drawn out quavering call, 

 and a nightjar its " Tok-tok-tok-tok-tok " for long periods 

 without a pause. 



Occasionally an ibis, startled by something, disturbs 

 the night with its raucous alarm cry, " Aa-aa-aa," or an 

 awakened monkey in the forest says what it thinks of 

 the disturber before settling down to sleep again. 



With the first glimmerings of day the chorus of birds 

 begins, and the forest resounds with their cries and music, 

 for there are many songsters of merit. Soon the troops 

 of monkeys awake and commence their hunting, and the 

 loud " kubba-kubba " cry shows where they travel among 

 the tree-tops ; and for the rest of the day the forest is 

 never silent. A species of forest francolin, living in the 

 densest thickets, has a loud ringing, laughing cry which, 

 taken up by one after the other, often resounds through 

 the forest during the heat of the day when other birds 

 are relatively quiet. Towards evening the hornbill 

 waxes vociferous, and his " Nga-nga " cry, from which 

 he gets his name, seems characteristic of that time ; 

 flocks of grey parrots flying home from the forest shriek 

 in the familiar discordant way, and snow white egrets 

 sedately wend their way with hoarse croakings across 

 the blue water to their accustomed roosting places. The 

 sunset chorus of songsters has hardly subsided before 

 the frogs and crickets take up the strain, and with the 

 rising of the moon owls add their melodious cry. 



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