WOOD NOTES WILD. 99 



predictions. On the present occasion, though it was 

 almost dark, the guinea hens chimed in with their rasp- 

 ing voices, and the turkeys added their best gobbles in 

 happy proclamation of the warm time coming. The owl 

 gave three distinct hoots in succession, repeating them at 

 intervals of about two minutes at first, afterwards with 

 longer pauses. The first of these tones was preceded 

 by a grace note ; the second was followed by a thread- 

 like slide down a fourth; and at the close of the third 

 was a similar descent of an octave. 



mrti - r>^ ^ 



Hoo, Hoo, Hoo. 



Neither slide, however, ended in a firm tone. 



White of Selborne says that one of his musical friends 

 decided that, with a single exception, his owls hooted in 

 B flat ; while a neighbor found the owls about the village 

 hooting in " three different keys, — in G flat or F sharp, 

 in B flat, and A flat." This Yankee owl, true to the 

 instincts of the soil, hooted in a key of his own, E flat. 



