1 66 SUNSHINE AND SPORT IN 



generally, no doubt, by townsmen, to whom, in 

 their ignorance of any beasts or birds beyond the 

 area cat and pavement sparrow, every rural custom 

 has its interest and surprise. As a matter of fact, 

 an ear for music and a little patience are sufficient 

 to enable anyone to reproduce with approximate 

 fidelity even the more complicated tunes of the 

 warblers, while the short, sharp call of quail and 

 curlew are absolutely simple. Why there should 

 have been need of the old "quail pipes," which 

 formerly had a great vogue in England when quail 

 were not so scarce as they are to-day, I know not. 

 One morning as I sat in the verandah, waiting for 

 the rest to turn out, a little quail, of a species 

 common on the island, called out of the palmetto 

 undergrowth not fifty yards away. Half-un- 

 consciously I took up the call, a very easy one, of 

 two notes only, and then ensued a long conversation, 

 always in the same two words, until at last my 

 small friend came running over the sand and peer- 

 ing up into the verandah for a sight of his rival. 



I have already had occasion to refer to the 

 manner in which, on our alligator hunt, my guide 

 would stoop beside each " cave " and make a 

 grunting sound like the voice of the seductive 

 reptile within. This I have since achieved without 

 the least difficulty and with a correctness that I 

 imagine demonstrated by the eagerness with which 

 my two small compagnons de voyage invariably 

 responded, on one occasion, in my bedroom 

 Havana, so affectionately as nearly to bite away 

 the first joint of my little finger in their excitement 

 at recognising a voice from home. 



The " whip-poor-will" (Antrostomus vociferus), 



