NOCTURNAL SOUNDS. 359 



prove that they are very abundant. Even when seen 

 by day, their agility in leaping renders it a difficult 

 matter to lay hands on them. The sounds in ques- 

 tion bear a strong resemblance to the objurgations of 

 an inveterate snorer, but are much louder ; or some- 

 times remind one of the groaning and working of a 

 ship's timbers in a heavy gale at sea. 



These are probably the voices of some of the 

 greater Hyladce. But there are other and different 

 noises still. While I am writing this note at Con- 

 tent, — it is a lovely night in June, — all around 

 I am saluted with strange sounds. Now and then 

 comes the singularly harsh and cracked voice of the 

 Gecko, like the notes of a child's penny trumpet, 

 or like a stick drawn across the teeth of a comb : — 

 this I am famihar with. But I hear another voice, 

 far more abundant, but quite unknown to me. It is 

 now (about midnight) coming up from every part of 

 the moonlitforest below me, with incessant pertinacity. 

 It is a clear shrill note, so like the voice of a bird, 

 and in particular so like that of the Solitaire, that it 

 might easily be mistaken for it, but for the inappro- 

 priate hour, and the locality. Like that, it is beau- 

 tifully trilled or shaken, and, like it, the individual 

 voices are not in the same key. As I now listen to 

 the mingling sounds, I distinguish two particularly 

 prominent, which seem to answer each other in 

 quick but regular alternation ; and between their 

 notes there is the difference of exactly a musical 

 tone. I have little doubt that this is the sexual call 

 of some Tree-frog. The groanings and snorings, 

 which are sometimes so incessant, I do not now hear, 



