BIRDS CATERPILLARS. 
i}9P 
though birds there arc 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 
soundod always as if the birds were s : nging in a foreign 
tongue. Somo resemblo the lark, and, indeed, there are 
sovcral of that family ; two have notes not unlike thoso of 
the thrush. One brought the chaffinch to my mind, and 
anothor the robin; but their songs arc intermixed with 
several curious abrupt notes unlike any thing English. 
One utters deliberately “peck, pak, pok;’' another has a 
single note like a stroke on a violin-string. Tlio 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 wo have the loud cry of francolins, the 
“pumpuru, pumpuru,” of turtle-doves, and tlio “chikcn, 
chikon, chik, churr, clmrr,” of the honey-guide. Occasion- 
ally, near villages, wo have a kind of mocking-bird, imi- 
tating the calls of domestic fowls. These African birds 
havo not been wanting in song : they have only lacked 
poets to sing their praises, which ours havo had from the 
time of Aristophanes downward. Ours have both a classic 
and a modorn interest to cnhanco their fame. In hot, dry 
wcatkor, or at mid-day when tho sun is fierce, all aro still : 
let, however, a good shower fall, and all burst forth at onco 
into merry lays and loving courtship. The early mornings 
and tho cool evenings aro their favorite timos for singing. 
Thcro aro comparatively few with gaudy plumage, being 
totally unliko, in this respect, tho birds of tho Brazils. 
Tho majority havo decidedly a sober dress, though col- 
lectors, having generally selected the gaudiest as tho most 
valuable, havo convoyed tho idea that tho birds of tho 
tropics for tho most part possess gorgeous plumago. 
15 th . — Several of my men havo been bitten by spidors 
and other insects, but no effect except pain has followed. 
A largo caterpillar is froquontly seen, eallod lezuntabuea. 
It is covorod with long gray hairs, and, tho body being 
