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.
Occasionally, near villages, we have a kind of mocking-bird,
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 downward.
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 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 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.
15TH. Several of my men have been bitten by spiders and other insects,
but no effect except pain has followed.
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