338 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



cause it to follow the imitator for a long distance, although 

 it will under these circumstances keep itself hidden in the 

 foliage. Wilson's account of the curious sounds which it 

 utters is very graphic and interesting. *0n these occasions 

 his responses are constant and rapid, strongly expressive of 

 anger and anxiety, and while the bird itself remains unseen, 

 the voice shifts from place to place amongst the bushes, as if 

 it proceeded from a spirit. First is heard a repetition of short 

 notes, resembling the whistling of the wings of a duck or 

 teal, beginning loud and rapid, and falling lower and slower, 

 till they end in detached notes. Then a succession of others, 

 something Hke the barking of young puppies, is followed by 

 a variety of hollow guttural sounds, each eight or ten times 

 repeated, more like those proceeding from the throat of a 

 quadruped than that of a bird; which are succeeded by 

 others not unlike the mewing of a cat, but considerably 

 hoarser. 



' All these are uttered with great vehemence, in such different 

 keys and with such peculiar modulation of voice as sometimes 

 to seem at a considerable distance, and instantly as if just beside 

 you ; now on this side and now on that : so that, from these 

 manoeuvres of ventriloquism, you are utterly at a loss to ascer- 

 tain from what particular spot or quarter they proceed. If 

 the weather be mild and serene, with clear moonlight, he con- 

 tinues gabbling in the same strange dialect, with very little 

 intermission, during the whole night, as if disputing with his 

 own echoes. 



'While the female is sitting, the cries of the male are still 

 more loud and incessant. When once aware that you have seen 

 him, he is less solicitous to conceal himself, and will sometimes 

 mount up into the air, almost perpendicularly, with his legs 

 hanging, descending, as he rose, by repeated jerks, as if highly 

 irritated, or, as is vulgarly said, "dancing mad." All this 

 noise and gesticulation we must attribute to his extieme affec- 

 tion for his mate and young ; and when we (Consider the great 

 distance from which in all probability he comes, the few young 

 produced at a time, and that seldom more than once in the 



