In Wildest Africa -^ 



realities ; we felt that here one might surprise nymphs 

 and dryads. The spell is soon broken. The gnomes 

 of the primeval forest, the tree-climbing hyraxes, have 

 scared away the silence. Wonderful to say, these dwarfish 

 hoofed animals, the nearest still surviving relatives of the 

 rhinoceros, are here scrambling up and down on the 

 trunks of the venerable trees. 



From all sides, from every spot, every direction, 

 there resound the same cries, and again there is silence 

 all around us. Here, far in the depths of the primeval 

 forest, the bird world seems to have no home. But 

 hark ! I hear a curious chirping, and I notice on a bare 

 bough above me one of the most gloriously coloured of 

 African birds, the banded trogon {Heterotrogon vittahtmy 

 Shell.), which, uttering a most peculiar sound, is carrying 

 on its characteristic sport — flapping its beautiful wings. 



Then loud-sounding trumpet-like notes break on 

 the ear. We hear a rushing in the air, and big horn- 

 bills with their huge beaks come sailing, as I judge 

 by their cries, through the air, and alight on the top 

 of a giant juniper {Juniperus procera). They, too, fly 

 away after awhile ; their trumpeting dies away in the 

 distance, and again there is silence all around. Their 

 voices and that of the brightly coloured helmet-bird give 

 to the primeval forest of Africa a strange charm that 

 is all its own. 



But now there suddenly breaks forth a remarkable 

 sound, rising and again falling as I listen, a strange music 

 of a most peculiar kind. It is the chatter of the coJobus 

 monkeys, a sound that cannot be described in words. 



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