484 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



becomes very tame, but does not live long in confinement. At nightfall 

 the chivelua sings his sweet evening song, beginning with a low whistle 

 which is three times repeated, each time with greater force ; then follow 

 the syllables chee-vay-loo-a repeated from three to six times in rapid suc- 

 cession. The tone is musical, half sad, half persuasive, beginning some- 

 what cheerful, and ending more coaxingly. 



" Many a night have I spent in the lonely forest and almost uncon- 

 sciously bowed my head when the chivelua began to sing. A peculiar 



4% 



Fig. 407. — California quail {Lophortyx calif ornicits). 



commingling of joy and sadness seems to pervade everything. This is 

 called by the natives ' la oracion,' or evening prayers, and is one of those 

 peculiar instances in nature in which the simultaneousness with which 

 many things take place is wrought into a superstition by man, and by him 

 regarded as a divine ordinance. 



" When the chivelua sings, the golden turkeys fly up in the trees to 

 roost, the buzzards seek their distant caves, the quails whistle, and all the 

 birds sing, the bells in the churches toll, and for a few moments all nature 

 resounds with sweetest music. This lasts during the short tropical twilight 



