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

white emigre White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

interested in the

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

bird song Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...

. Halafoff was born in 1902 in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. After the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. It was led by Vladimir L ...

in Russia he served with the

White Army The White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen, or simply the Whites, was a common collective name for the armed formations of the White movement and Anti-Sovietism, anti-Bolshevik governments during the Russian Civil War. T ...

. In 1920 he moved to

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

where he resumed his interrupted studies and graduated from

Belgrade University The University of Belgrade () is a public research university in Belgrade, 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 Krag ...

. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he fled to

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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 (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...

's language, published in a Russian literary review in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

.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 passerine songbird, one of two species from the family Menuridae, with the other being the much rarer Albert's lyrebird. It is one of the world's largest songbirds, and is re ...

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, Victoria, Belgrave. It lies within an altitude of 220–500 m Height abov ...

. 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 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