282 THE PLAY OF AXIMALS. 



rapidly aloft in the eYening. It is eyidently a call to 

 the female, who answers from the earth with a " dick- 

 kiih " or " kiip ti kiipp ti kiipp/"' * 



Xaumann thought the flapping of storks connected 

 with courtship, but as I do not consider these mani- 

 festations playful I abstain from further citations, ex- 

 cept in the case of the bittern, which may be said to 

 practise his art playfully if the following description is 

 to be trusted. Brehm says: " The peculiar pairing call 

 of the male bittern is like the lowing of oxen, and on 

 still nights may be heard at a distance of two or three 

 kilometres. It is composed of a prelude and a principal 

 tone, and sounds something like ^Uepnimb't ^^ ^ 

 distance. It is said that on coming near the birds a 

 sound like beating on water with sticks is heard. . . . 

 The male keeps it up almost constantly; beginning at 

 twilight he is most Tociferous before midnight, and 

 ceases at da^Ti, only to start up again, however, between 

 seven and nine o'clock. The observations of Count 

 Wodzicki have confirmed the account of the older 

 writers. He says : ' The performer stands on both feet 

 with his biU in the water when giving vent to this 

 extraordinar}^ sound, which causes the water to spurt up 

 all around. First I heard Xaumann's * 17e ' and then the 

 bird raised his head and looked behind him, but quick- 

 ly plunging it in again he produced such a roar that I 

 was startled. I am convinced that these tones which 



* Diezel's Niederjagd, p. 664. Here, too, is to be found a histon^ 

 of the controversy over the oricrin of this sound, but unfortunately 

 Darwin's remarks on similar phenomena are not noticed. 



f Although he often attempted it. Xaumann never got a sight 

 of the bittern. "We may assume that his " Uepnimb " is only a rough 

 approximation of the sound, which is not transcribnble. " It is a 

 sound," say the Miillers. " that blends the deepest lowing of cattle 

 with water splashing and something like sighs." 



