Konstantin Ciryl Halafoff or K. C. Halafoff (1902–1969) was a Russian

white emigre White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

interested in the

musicology Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalizations) are distinguished by func ...

. Halafoff was born in 1902 in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. After the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolsheviks, Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was ...

in Russia he served with the

White Army The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв� ...

. In 1920 he moved to

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

where he resumed his interrupted studies and graduated from

Belgrade University The University of Belgrade ( sr, / ) is a public university in Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it merged with the Kragujevac-ba ...

. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he fled to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

where he lived until moving to Australia in 1949. He published his poetry in various Russian emigre publications in Europe and Australia; one of his contributions being an essay on musical aspects of

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...

's language, published in a Russian literary review in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

.Gloria Victis 1956: The response of poets throughout the world to the Hungarian fight for freedom of 1956
/ref> Halafoff studied the complex vocalisations of

superb lyrebird The superb lyrebird (''Menura novaehollandiae'') is an Australian songbird, one of two species from the family Menuridae. It is one of the world's largest songbirds, and is renowned for its elaborate tail and courtship displays, and its excell ...

s in Australia, especially in

Sherbrooke Forest Sherbrooke Forest is a wet sclerophyll forest within Dandenong Ranges National Park, 40 km east of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia, close to the suburb of Belgrave. It lies within an altitude of 220–500 m asl and is dominated by the t ...

. Articles and notes he wrote about lyrebirds and other birds that were published in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970 include: * 1958 – Lyrebirds of Sherbrooke. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 74(11): 157–63. * 1958 – Sherbrooke Diary. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 75(7): 105–112. * 1959 – A Lyrebird dancing in a pool. ''Emu'' 59: 220. * 1959 – Musical analysis of the lyrebird's song. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 75: 169–78. * 1959 – The range of the lyrebird's song. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 76: 121. * 1961 – Writing down a lyrebird's song. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 77: 335–338, 359–363. * 1961 – Notes on the lyrebird's song. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 78: 79–81. * 1962 – A strange duet. ''Emu'' 62: 62. * 1964 – Audiospectrographic analysis of the lyrebird's song. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 80: 304–12. * 1968 – A survey of birds’ music. ''Emu'' 68: 21–40. * 1970 – Notes of Lyrebird dialects. ''Victorian Naturalist'' 78: 1. Halafoff died in 1969 in

Ferntree Gully Ferntree Gully is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges, 30 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Kn ...

a suburb of Melbourne, aged 67.''Death Index Victoria 1921–1985'' CD-ROM, (1998), The Crown in the State of Victoria: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

References

1902 births 1969 deaths Male poets from the Russian Empire Australian ornithologists Writers from Moscow University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology alumni 20th-century Russian poets 20th-century Australian zoologists White Russian emigrants to Yugoslavia Yugoslav emigrants to Australia Yugoslav zoologists {{Australia-ornithologist-stub