In Wildest Africa ^ 



reproduction of the cry of the zebra as I heard it 

 myself.^ 



What a pity that all this cannot be put on permanent 

 record by some such apparatus as a gigantic phonograph ! 

 But unfortunately we are still a long way from such a 

 possibility. 



No one will be surprised at my keeping specially in 

 mind that endlessly melancholy cry of the cuckoo in the 

 darkness. How lonely and empty our German woodlands 

 would seem without the cuckoo and the cuckoo cry ! 

 As a matter of fact the African primeval forest never 

 hears the same cry that has become so dear to ourselves. 

 Our cuckoo, migrating in a few days all the way from 

 the north to the equator, flies in restless haste through 

 wood and plain, but he is silent. His cry Is heard only 

 in our country at home. But in the East Africa district 

 of Fori, amongst many other cries those of two species 

 of cuckoo are heard in rivalry. These are the sickle 

 cuckoo — the '' Tipi-tlpi " of the Swahili — a reddish-brown 

 fellow that flutters in heavy flight everywhere about the 

 bush, the reedy bogs and hlU-slopes ; and the solitary 

 cuckoo (Cticuhts solitarius, Step.), about whose cry I 

 was for a long time mistaken. The unceasing, low cry 

 of the former, the sickle cuckoo, if it is heard even a 

 few times, can never again be forgotten. It sounds like 

 — " Dut-diit — dududu — dut-dut." One hears it by day and 

 also in the darkest night, contrasting strongly with the 



1 Cf. Prof. P. Matschie, Die Siiugeiiere Deutsch-Ostafrikas (''The 

 Mammalia of German East Africa "), p. 96, and my work With Flashlight 

 and Rifle. 



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