XXXIX 



VOICES OF THE NIGHT 



THE stillness of the Indian night suffers 

 many interruptions. 

 In the vicinity of a town or village the 

 hours of darkness are rendered hideous by 

 the noises of human beings and of their appendages — 

 the pariah dogs. In the jungle the " friendly silences 

 of the moon " are continually disturbed by the bark 

 of the fox, the yelling of the jackal, or the notes of the 

 numerous birds of the night. 



The call of the various nocturnal birds must be 

 familiar to every person who has spent a hot weather 

 in the plains of Northern India and slept night after 

 night beneath the starry heavens. With the calls of 

 the birds all are familiar, but some do not know the 

 names of the originators of these sounds. 



First and foremost of the fowls that hft up their 

 voices after the shades of night have fallen are the tiny 

 spotted owlets (Athene brama). Long before the sun 

 has set these quaint little creatures emerge from the 

 holes in w^hich they have spent the day, and treat the 

 neighbours to a " torrent of squeak and chatter and 

 gibberish " which is like nothing else in the world, and 



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