28 TIMES AND SEASONS. 



birds, the rapid articulations of the nightjars, the mono- 

 tonous hoot, or shriek, or wail of the owls, the loud 

 impatient screams of the Aramus. But besides these, 

 there are some which are produced by reptiles. The 

 gecko creeps stealthy and cat-like from his hollow tree, and 

 titters his harsh cackle ; and other lizards are believed to 

 add to the concert of squeaks and cries. And then there 

 come from the depth of the forest-glooms sounds like the 

 snoring of an oppressed sleeper, but louder; or like the 

 groaning and working of a ship's timbers in a heavy gale 

 at sea. These are produced by great tree-frogs, of uncouth 

 form, which love to reside in the sheathing leaves of para- 

 sitic plants, always half full of cool water. These reptiles 

 are rarely seen ; but the abundance and universality of the 

 sounds, in the lower mountain-woods, prove how nume- 

 rous they must be. Occasionally I have heard other 

 strange sounds, as, in particular, one lovely night in June, 

 when lodging at a little lone cottage on a mountain- 

 side, in the midst of the woods. About midnight, as I 

 sat at the open window, there came up from every part of 

 the moonlit forest below, with incessant pertinacity, a clear 

 shrill note, so like the voice of a bird, and specially so like 

 that of the solemn solitaire, that it might easily be mis- 

 taken for it, but for the inappropriate hour, and the 

 locality. Like that charming bird-voice, it was beauti- 

 fully trilled or shaken ; and like it, the individual voices 

 were not in the same key. Listening to the mingled 

 sounds, I could distinguish two particularly prominent, 

 which seemed to answer each other in quick but regular 



