At Home with Wild Nature 



procedure by frequently leaving its perch and making 

 its wings meet over its back with a resounding smack. 

 Gilbert White says : " This bird is most punctual in 

 beginning its song exactly at the close of day." I have 

 heard it whilst the sun was shining on the tree in which 

 it was sitting. 



During warm spring nights the amorous frog thrusts 

 his head above the placid waters of his native pond and 

 makes himself heard afar. He also does this by day, 

 hence the call notes of the turtle dove are frequently 

 mistaken for the croaking of a frog. 



Many sounds in Nature bear such a close similarity 

 to each other as to suggest that they have been 

 borrowed. The magpie and the great tit use some notes 

 almost identical in phrase, but, of course, different in 

 volume, and such birds as starlings, song thrushes and 

 marsh warblers habitually borrow the notes of other 

 feathered vocalists, as every Nature-lover knows. 



Gulls, oyster catchers, and other seafowl appear to 

 remain awake all night long in their breeding haunts. 

 At any rate, there is never an hour during which all 

 their tongues are stilled. 



The Manx shearwater leaves its breeding burrow on 

 some lonely sea-girt isle at night and utters a weird cry, 

 which has been likened to " Cuckolds in a row." Like 

 the nocturnal notes of most sea birds, it is of the 

 melancholy order. 



Of all the voices of the night calculated to depress 

 the soul of an insomnia-racked human being, I consider 

 superlative the sound of a school of whales breathing 



