-> The Voices of the Wilderness 



intercedens Rchw.) that thus made itself heard in the 

 night, as our woocllarks do in moonlight nights at 

 home. It was at the cost of much careful research 

 that the discovery was made of what bird produced this 

 song. 



And the strange voice of yet another bird is inseparable 

 from my recollections of the wilderness of East Africa. 

 The xerophytic flora of the far-spreading thorny mimosa 

 thickets gives shelter to a privileged member of the bird 

 world, which is thus guarded in safety from all danger 

 amid their thorny boughs and branches. I refer to a 

 peculiar bird, belonging to the group of the Musophagidae, 

 grey-feathered, green-beaked, long-tailed, and adorned 

 with a crest. This strange fellow roves about rest- 

 lessly a bird about as big as a jay, misleading the 

 traveller with his cry in the most curious way. Science 

 calls him Chizaerhis leucogastra> Riipp. ; the German 

 language has given him the name of " Larmvogel " 

 (" noisy bird "). 



And he has a perfect right to bear his name. There 

 resounds somewhere near us, and in a way that completely 

 deceives us, now the barking and snarling of a dog, now 

 the bleating of sheep. Following the direction of the 

 sound we look to see what produces it, and we find our 

 bird hopping about nimbly upon the tops of the thorn- 

 trees and acacias, appearing to have no anxiety about 

 the thorny spikes of the branches, in which he makes his 

 home. With a cleverness that borders on the miraculous 

 he makes his way amongst them, protected by them 

 against the attacks of birds or beasts of prey, and in his 



307 



