58 
BIRD-LIFE. 
whose voices are, more or less, singular, not to say 
unearthly. All nocturnal birds distinguish themselves in 
this manner from the diurnal birds: their voices always 
bear the impress of night; they are melancholy, gloomy, 
horrible and forbidding. Owls—on account of their often 
really horrible screeching, groaning and miauling—have 
become objects of fear and dread. The more inoffensive 
night-birds, also, make doleful and repugnant noises. 
The Scissor-billed Tern (Rhynchops), nocturnal in its 
habits, wails in the most doleful manner; the Goat¬ 
suckers, which for the greater part, generally purr their 
even song, not much unlike a cat in a happy frame of 
mind, occasionally give utterance to the most disagreeable 
tones; and even in the words so clearly spoken by an 
American species there is expressed something uncom¬ 
fortable : the call “ Whip-poor-Will” is certainly a 
summons of a dismal kind ! 
There are, however, among diurnal birds, some whose 
cries are equally disagreeable, especially in the regions 
within the tropics. Two species, living in Europe, have 
acquired a certain celebrity on account of their call. 
One is the Bittern (Botaurus stellaris ), whose call very 
much resembles the bellowing of a bull; this singular 
sound is produced by burying its beak almost entirely in 
the water while calling. The other is the celebrated 
Sinister Jay (Perisoreus infctustus ), an inhabitant of the 
far North of our quarter of the globe. According to con¬ 
current statements, the cry of this bird closely resembles 
the wail of a human being hurrying to destruction, thus 
sounding, in the highest degree, unearthly. In Africa I 
have also remarked something very similar in the call of 
an Ibis (Ibis Hagedasch ): should this bird be in a calling 
humour, the listener would imagine he could distinguish 
