This, I fancy, is the
lover's serenade, and the soft assenting answer; almost invariably the
loud hollow sound is the opening phrase of the duet. "Sole or responsive
to each other's note," the birds make the forest resound again during the
day, especially in the prime months, and even these notes find varied and
pleasing expression. Free and joyous as a rule, occasionally they seem to
indicate sadness and gloom. During and after a bush fire the birds give
to the notes a mournful cadence like the memories of joy that are past, a
lament for the destruction of the grass among which last year's
dome-shaped nests were hidden. The swamp pheasant also utters a contented,
self-complacent chuckle, that resembles the "Goo! goo! goo!" of a happy
infant, and occasionally a succession of grating, discordant, mocking
sounds, "Tcharn! tcharn! tcharn!" The chuckle may be an expression as if
gloating over the detection and assimilation of some favourite dainty,
and the harsh notes a demonstration of rivalry, anger and hostility. The
more familiar and more frequent note is the "Toom," repeated about
fourteen or sixteen times, and the thinner, softer response.
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