NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



vision, so some hear many sounds which escape 

 others. Thus some can detect the stroke of a bat's 

 wing and the closing of its jaws on an insect, the 

 munching of a caterpillar, and the rustle of an 

 earthworm. 



In midsummer in the North of Scotland, for 

 instance, there is hardly any darkness at all one 

 can sometimes see to read at midnight, and there 

 are not more than two hours when the larks are not 

 singing. But even when there are long hours of 

 darkness there are country sounds. There is the 

 hedgehog, for instance, which calls incisively in the 

 stillness with >a peculiar voice between grunt and 

 squeal. There is the whir of the night-jar and the 

 loud clap of its wings together, as it hawks for 

 nocturnal insects, or the vibrating " churr " of the 

 male seated lengthwise on a branch. The shriek 

 of the barn-owl and the tu-whit, tu-who of the tawny 

 owl are familiar night sounds, and some people can 

 hear the voice of bats. Soon after cock-crow one 

 is wakened by the rather startling bark of black- 

 headed gulls, and they are soon followed by the more 

 cheerful jackdaws. Then, on the adjacent moor, 

 the cock grouse welcomes the sun ; the swifts, soon 

 to journey to the south, begin their chase, and their 

 half -triumphant, half-delirious cry, in bad weather 

 and in good, is often the first sound to be heard in 

 the morning and the last sound to be heard at night. 



Particular places have their characteristic sounds, 

 which we listen for expectantly. The moorland 

 would be incomplete without the melancholy cry of 

 the curlew, with a melodious ripple at the nesting- 



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