57° BIRDS AND THEIR SONG. 



of happy existence encircling the world, and imparts the 

 Idea of its being caused by the consciousness of our 

 "benignant Father's smile on all the works of His hands. 



The birds of the tropics have been described as generally 

 wanting in power of song. I was decidedly of opinion 

 that this was not applicable to many parts in Londa, 

 though birds there are remarkably scarce. Here the 

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

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

 sounded always 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 anything Bnglish. 

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

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

 xeza 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. 

 Occasionally near villages we have a kind of mocking 

 T^ird, imitating 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 downwards. Ours have 

 "both a classic and a modern interest to enhance their 

 fame. In hot dry weather, or at midday 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 favourite times for singing. There are compara- 

 tively few with gaudy plumage, being totally unlike, in 

 this respect, the birds of the Brazils. The majority have 

 •decidedly a sober dress, though collectors, having generally 

 selected the gaudiest as the most valuable, have conveyed 

 the idea that the birds of the tropics for the most part 

 possess gorgeous plumage. 



i$th. — 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 grey hairs, and, the body being 



