338 
STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
cause it to follow the imitator for a long distance, although 
it will under these circumstances keep itself hidden in the 
foliage. Wilson’s account of the curious sounds which it 
utters is very graphic and interesting. 4 On these occasions 
his responses are constant and rapid, strongly expressive of 
anger and anxiety, and while the bird itself remains unseen, 
the voice shifts from place to place amongst the bushes, as if 
it proceeded from a spirit. First is heard a repetition of short 
notes, resembling the whistling of the wings of a duck or 
teal, beginning loud and rapid, and falling lower and slower, 
till they end in detached notes. Then a succession of others, 
something like the barking of young puppies, is followed by 
a variety of hollow guttural sounds, each eight or ten times 
repeated, more like those proceeding from the throat of a 
quadruped than that of a bird ; which are succeeded by 
others not unlike the mewing of a cat, but considerably 
hoarser. 
6 All these are uttered with great vehemence, in such different 
keys and with such peculiar modulation of voice as sometimes 
to seem at a considerable distance, and instantly as if just beside 
you ; now on this side and now on that : so that, from these 
manoeuvres of ventriloquism, you are utterly at a loss to ascer- 
tain from what particular spot or quarter they proceed. If 
the weather be mild and serene, with clear moonlight, he con- 
tinues gabbling in the same strange dialect, with very little 
intermission, during the whole night, as if disputing with his 
own echoes. 
4 While the female is sitting, the cries of the male are still 
mere loud and incessant. When once aware that you have seen 
him, he is less solicitous to conceal himself, and will sometimes 
mount up into the air, almost perpendicularly, with his legs 
hanging, descending, as he rose, by repeated jerks, as if highly 
irritated, or, as is vulgarly said, “ dancing mad.” All this 
noise and gesticulation we must attribute to his extreme affec- 
tion for his mate and young ; and when we consider the great 
distance from which in all probability he comes, the few young 
produced at a time, and that seldom more than once in the 
