NOISY BIRDS 
N article on the subject of noisy birds re- 
cently appeared in the “Spectator.” It 
is evident that the writer is not personally 
acquainted with India. Had he been, he 
would certainly have taken some of his examples of 
noisy fowls from the avifauna of this country. It is 
true that India can boast of no quiet bird so vociferous 
as the campanero or bell-bird of America, whose voice 
is said to carry for three miles, that being about the 
distance “ which would be selected (by preference) by 
its auditors!” However, as generators of noise, horn- 
bills are not very far behind the bell-bird. The flapping 
of the wings of that most extraordinary of birds—the 
Great Hornbill—can be heard a mile away, the sound 
resembling that made by a railway train. The voice 
of the bird, moreover, carries a distance of many 
furlongs. 
The writer in the “Spectator” declares that England, 
although it cannot boast of many vociferous birds, has 
some “which can hold their own with all but the most 
strenuous voices of the bird population of other lands,” 
As a matter of fact, there is only one such bird in 
England, and that is the corn-crake. Take away this 
283 
