^°oo6^'l Cleland, Some Bird Observations. 191 



base of a decayed limb where should be seen a deadly enemy 

 with piercing eye fixed on him. 



The Southern Stone-Plover {Burhimis grallarius). — 

 Some years ago'four of these birds made our large garden and its 

 surrounding fields their home. None of them were in any way 

 confined, but wandered perfectly at large. Two were quite 

 wild, attracted to the neighbourhood apparently by the tamer 

 pair. Of the latter, one had apparently been brought up 

 amongst children, for he would follow them about like a dog. 

 Such was his tameness, in fact, that as soon as he saw me 

 approach he would come up and feed out of my hand. Where- 

 ever we went, there he would follow us like a dog, even into and 

 through the house as far as the drawingroom, where, if the piano 

 were in use, he would stand beside it and whistle in an excited 

 manner. While we were playing tennis he was always present, 

 and most amusingly dodged the ball when it came in his direc- 

 tion — not infrequently striking his head against the ground in 

 his endeavours to avoid it. We called him "Jip," and from the 

 way in which, when several of us formed into a line and marched, 

 he would run and " plant " himself ahead of us, keeping about 2 

 feet in front and uttering a surprised, querying, piping sound, 

 the sobriquet " Piper " was added. If in our march we 

 suddenly wheeled round, he would dart in front and start piping 

 again. Whenever "Jip" heard us whistling he would im- 

 mediately start doing so too, either in rivalry or for instruction, 

 as much as to say — " This is the proper way to whistle ! " The 

 other tame bird almost invariably whistled when "Jip" had 

 done so, but rarely if ever could he be induced to do so by 

 our whistling alone. Neither of these two tame birds ever 

 exhibited in their note the beautiful, soft, sad cadence 

 so characteristic of the wild bird's whistle ; their call ended 

 short of this, and was quicker, merely rising to a height 

 and falling. (I have reason to think that both the tame birds 

 were hens. Is it possible that only the males have the 

 characteristic whistle, and that the two wild birds, being such, 

 had been attracted by the tame females ?) All the birds, how- 

 ever, at times made use, especially when flying, of a wild, 

 choppy screech, quite eerie in the dark. I have, at times, heard 

 other wild birds using these unearthly notes, and one instance 

 especially is fixed in my memory. Dog-tired and hungry, at 

 the end of a long and heavy tramp, darkness had overtaken us 

 on an unknown road, when suddenly, as we passed beneath 

 some large, dark trees, wild, hysterical shrieks and yells, rapidly 

 dying away in the distance, rose from the undergrowth beside 

 us. At first, perhaps being overstrung by tiredness, we started, 

 thinking of murder or of a human being in distress, but quickly 

 recognized with relief an unmistakable Stone-Plover's note 

 throughout the other. One of the wild birds alluded to above 



