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In the morning the modest ground-larks cheeped softly among the rough grasses on the low hills, while the proud heaven-scaler the lordly kinsman of the ground-lark filled the sky with his lovely clamour.
The ground-lark sways on a frond above you; the stonechat lights for an instant, utters his cracking cry, and is off with a whisk; you have fair, quiet, and sweet rest, and you start up ready to jog along again. You come to a slow clear stream that winds seaward, lilting to itself in low whispered cadences.
"What kind of a bird?" inquired Filippa, who loved bird pets. "A kind of Chinese ground-lark. It has large eyes and a long bill, and its feathers are spotted," replied Fil. We were passing over the bridge that carried the road over an arm of the sea, the purple sea, which had a white foam-edge. I noticed a boat moving against the tide. It had no engine, no sails, no rowers at the oarlocks.
Now the kraals were ashes and piles of tumbled stones, and strewn about among the rank grass were the bones of hundreds of men, women, and children, all of whom had kissed the Zulu assegai. I remember that in one of these desolate places I found the skull of a child in which a ground-lark had built its nest. It was the twittering of the young birds inside that first called my attention to it.
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