XV 



The rhea's voice — Sounds that carry farthest — Man and animals 

 compared as to voice power — The swift's flight — Melody — ^ 

 Music as art and instinctive — Mammalian music — Capybara 

 — Quis — Tuco-tuco — Singing mouse and small rodents — 

 Monkeys — Braying of the ass as music — A purge for the 

 mind — The ass in fable and folk-story. 



WRITING of my neighbour, Bias Escovar, 

 who killed an ox by shouting at it in his 

 anger, I said that his voice was a very deep 

 one. It was a deep bass when he spoke in his usual 

 subdued conversational tone — you could well imagine 

 that by "lifting up" that same voice the doors and 

 windows of the house would be made to shudder in 

 their frames — and nevertheless it had an extra- 

 ordinary carrying power. An exceptional case, for 

 we know that it is the high-pitched voices that carry 

 farthest, and that the high clear notes of birds outrun 

 all other vocal sounds. The rhea, or ostrich of South 

 America, appears to be an exception among birds, 

 like Bias with his bass voice among men. 



The male rhea, like the male partridge and the 

 males of many other polygamous species, especially 

 in the gallinaceous order, has the habit of lifting up 

 his voice to call his females together when they have 

 been accidentally scattered, as when there has been 

 a big ostrich hunt. The sounds uttered on these occa- 

 sions are peculiar, for albeit they are well understood 



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