d cock stayed not a moment longer upon the tree. He had served
his mate with her dinner, and perhaps he had yet to bring on the
dessert. Whether or not, he rose immediately afterwards into the air,
with the same clangorous clapping of his wings; but this time the noise
was accompanied by the clattering of his horny mandibles, like a pair of
castanets, causing a sound not only singular, but, if heard by
strangers, calculated to beget within them a considerable feeling of
alarm.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

A FOUR-FOOTED BURGLAR.

After the departure of the bird, that had taught our young adventurers
so interesting a chapter of natural history, the elephant once more
engrossed their attention. Not that there was anything new in the
movements of the latter--for it was acting just as before--but simply
because they knew that, so long as it remained upon the ground, they
would have to stay in the tree; and they naturally bent their eyes upon
it, to see if it was showing any signs of moving off. They could
perceive none. Not the slightest appearance to indicate its intention
of departing from the spot.

While engaged in regarding the besieger, their eyes were of course
removed from the sycamore; nor might they have been again turned towards
that tree--at least, not for a good while--but for a sound that reached
their ears, and which appeared to proceed from the direction of the
hornbill's nest. It was a soft and rather plaintive sound--unlike any
that had been made by the rhinoceros bird; nor was it at all like the
voice of a bird, of any kind. It was more like the utterance of some
four-footed creature; or it might even have been a human voice
pronouncing the syllable "wha," several times repeated.

That it was neither bird nor human being, Ossaroo could tell the moment
he heard the first "wha." Almost as soon were the others convinced that
it was neither: for on turning their eyes to the sycamore, they saw upon
the projecting spur that had been so lately occupied by the hornbill, a
creature of a very different kind--in short, a quadruped.

Had it been in an American forest, they might have taken the creature
for a racoon though a very large one. On closer scrutiny, many points
of resemblance, and also of difference, would have become apparent.
Like the racoon, it had plantigrade feet, a burly, rounded body, and a
very thick hairy tail--ringed also like that of the American animal--but
unlike the latter, its muzzle