22 



The Sheep-Fluke. 



of the movement characteristic of wading birds, and indeed he is a kind of 

 semi-wader, often walking in water ankle-deep, among aquatic plants along 

 river-banks and in bogs. At all such times he is very alert, and it is 

 difficult to get a good view of him, except through a telescope. He spies me 

 at a distance, and flies up into an adjacent tree, often taking the precaution 

 to fly beyond the tree, and come back into it on the far side, with a kind of 

 swooping curve. He likes to see all sides of a tree before he ventures in. 

 " Loole before you 'light " is his motto. Like a true comrade, he warns his 

 mates of my presence by a peculiarly-accented call, " Kee, Jcee, Tcee, Tcee, leee, 

 Icee, pitched about thus, 



r T T T t T 



t t f f |- t 



Kop ! Ree! Kee! Kee! Kee! Kee! 



How often have I paused a second in my work to listen to his sprightly 

 call ! It is remarkable how much a bird can do with a simple note or two. Quite 

 a vocabulary is made out of it, suggesting that the step from bird language 



" How often have I paused a second in my work to listen to his sprightly call !" 



to that of savages is scarcely greater than from the language of savages to 

 that of civilisation. As, however, one syllable can be repeated slowly or 

 quickly, with a rising or falling inflection, loudly or softly, once, twice, thrice, 

 or many times in succession, it is easy to understand how, even where their 

 notes are limited in number, birds manage to talk among themselves 

 indifferently well. 



