THE SCREECH OWL. 37 



mouse; thus both had been turned into ice in the very act 

 of the chase. 



This bird is abundant here throughout the 3^ear, but is 

 more noticeable in winter, as it then approaches the barn 

 and the out-buildings, probably in search of food and shelter. 

 In late summer and early autumn it may be heard about 

 the orchard or the edge of the wood; in the evening, uttering a 

 soft whinny, not at all to be compared, however, to ^^screech- 

 ing.'' Thoreau, describing the sounds within hearing of his hut 

 at Walden Lake, gives special prominence to the vocal per- 

 formance of this bird. He says: "It is no honest and blunt ///- 

 wJiit, tu-who of the poets, but, without jesting, a most solemn, 

 graveyard ditty, the mutual consolations of suicide lovers 

 remembering the pangs and the delights of supernal love in 

 the infernal groves. Yet I love to hear their wailing, their 

 doleful responses, trilled along the road-side, reminding me 

 sometimes of music and singing birds; as if it were the 

 dark and tearful side of music, the regrets and sighs that 

 would feign be sung. They are the spirits, the low spirits 

 and melancholy forebodings of fallen souls that once in 

 human shape night-walked the earth and did the deeds of 

 darkness, now expiating their sins with their wailing hymns 

 or threnodies in the scenery of their transgressions. They 

 give me a new sense of the variety and capacity of that 

 nature which is our common dwelling. Oh-o-o-o-o that I 

 never had been bor-r-r-r-r-n ! sighs one on this side of the 

 pond, and circles with the restlessness of despair to some 

 new perch on the gray oaks. Then — that I never had been 

 bor-r-r-r-n I echoes another on the further side with tremu- 

 lous sincerity, and bor-r-r-r-n ! comes faintly from far in 

 Lincoln woods." 



About nine inches long, with large ear-tufts, ash-gray 

 above, with a lighter shade of the same beneath, all 



