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CHAPTER IV. 

 The Outskirts of the Forest. 



T^ROM nowhere is a better view of the estuary to be 

 obtained than from the hills which rise up at the 

 back of Knysna, the broad river spreading itself out 

 below, its various islands showing here and there as in 

 a map. These hills are covered for the most part with 

 rough grass, varied occasionally with rhenoster bushes 

 or other small shrubs. From here also one might look 

 down on the straggling bits of forest which divided 

 these low hills, and it was seldom that the cry of one 

 of the forest birds was not in the air, the note most 

 often to be heard being the shrill whistle of the Piet, or 

 the weird melancholy "shudder" of the Vley Lourie. 

 These open hills had their sounds of bird life as well 

 as the forest, and these sounds, like those of the woods, 

 were made up more of the various isolated notes of the 

 small birds that frequented this rough scrub than of 

 any sustained melody of song. 



There was the short jerky note of the Cape Grass- 

 Warbler, as the bird flew up into the air for a second 

 or two, and then took refuge in the thick cover which the 

 ground afforded, or the sniffling chirrup of the South 

 African Stone-chat, as it settled on the topmost spray 

 of some low bush, and jerked its tail in a rather 

 galvanic manner for several minutes after alighting. 



