ksshshsshshss.

n.  the sound of static from a lost communications signal, as in the graphic novella Hearts and Minds by Scott McCloud.

kssrrrrr.

n.  the “harsh grating” call of the Black-Headed Gonolek, “sounding like violent tearing of cloth,” as described in Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania by Dale A. Zimmerman.

ksss.

n.  a lizard’s hissing exclamation.

<Ksss!  Howja feel now?  —Brian Jacques, Salamandastron.>

ksss ksss.

n.  a sound to lure mysterious creatures hiding in one’s garden.

<When I leave the house first thing in the morning ... I always stop in the garden for a moment and say out loud: “Ksss, Ksss.”  And at once a most peculiar phenomenon takes place.  A kind of wheezing cough can be heard from the dry leaves; a croaking and rustling, spitting sound.  Two fiery eyes light up about a foot from the ground and then something black with a bald swelling on its neck comes hurtling out of the bushes at me, snapping madly at my trouser-creases.  What species of animal it belongs to I haven’t yet succeeded in founding out.  —Gustav Meyrink, The Opal.>

n.  the “sharp, hissing” call of the Red-billed Oxpecker, as described in Starlings and Mynas by Chris Feare; the “low hoarse” call of the Isabelline (Red-tailed) Shrike, as described in Shrikes and Bush-Shrikes by Tony Harris.

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