1)90 BIRDS — CATERPILLARS. 



though birds there are remarkably scarce. Here the 

 chorus, or body of song, was not much smaller in volume 

 than it is in England. It was not so harmonious, and 

 sounded alwaj^s as if the birds were singing in a foreign 

 tongue. Some resemble the lark, and, indeed, there are 

 several of that family; two have notes not unlike those of 

 the thrush. One brought the chaffinch to my mind, and 

 another the robin; but their songs are intermixed with 

 several curious abrupt notes unlike any thing English. 

 One utters deliberately "peek, pak, pok;" another has a 

 single note like a stroke on a violin-string. The mokwa 

 reza gives forth a screaming set of notes like our blackbird 

 when disturbed, then concludes with what the natives say 

 is "pula, pula," (rain, rain,) but more like "weep, weep, 

 weep." Then we have the loud cry of francolins, the 

 "pumpuru, pumpuru," of turtle-doves, and the "chiken, 

 chiken, chik, churr, churr," of the honey-guide. Occasion- 

 ally, near villages, we have a kind of mocking-bird, imi- 

 tating the calls of domestic fowls. These African birds 

 have not been wanting in song : they have only lacked 

 poets to sing their praises, which ours have had from the 

 time of Aristophanes downward. Ours have both a classic 

 and a modern interest to enhance their fame. In hot, dry 

 weather, or at mid-day when the sun is fierce, all are still : 

 let, however, a good shower fall, and all burst forth at once 

 into merry lays and loving courtship. The early mornings 

 and the cool evenings are their favorite times for singing. 

 There are comparatively few with gaudy plumage, being 

 totally unlike, in this respect, the birds of the Brazils. 

 The majority have decidedly a sober dress, though col- 

 lectors, having generally selected the gaudiest as the most 

 valuable, have conveyed the idea that the birds of tho 

 tropics for the most part possess gorgeous plumage. 



loth. — Several of my men have been bitten by spiders 

 and other insects, but no effect except pain has followed. 

 A large caterpillar is frequently seen, called lezuntabuea. 

 It is covered with long gray hairs, and, the body being 



