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NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 143 
all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch-pipe set at 
concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will examine 
the nightingales next spring. 
I am, &c. &c. 
be ER, Xt. 
TO THE SAME. 
SELEORNE, Ag. 1st, 1771. 
DEAR SIR,—From what follows, it will appear that neither owls 
nor cuckoos, keep to one note. A friend remarks that many (most) 
of his owls hoot in B flat ; but that one went almost half a note 
below A. The pipe he tried their notes by was a common half- 
crown pitch-pipe, such as masters use for tuning of harpsichords ; 
it was the common London pitch. 
A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks that 
the owls about this village hoot in three different keys, in G flat, or 
F sharp, in B flat and A flat. He heard two hooting to each other, 
the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Query: Do these different 
notes proceed from different species, or only from various in- 
dividuals? The same person finds upon trial that the note of the 
cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies in different 
individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they were mostly 
in D: he heard two sing together, the one in D, the other in 
D sharp, who made a disagreeable concert : he afterwards heard 
one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest some in C. As to 
nightingales, he says that their notes are so short, and their transi- 
tions so rapid, that he cannot well ascertain their key. Perhaps 
in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more distinguishable. 
This person has tried to settle the notes of a swift, and of several 
other small birds, but cannot bring them to any criterion. 
As I have often remarked that redwings are some of the first 
birds that suffer with us in severe weather, it is no wonder at all 
that they retreat from Scandinavian winters : and much more the 
ordo of gralle, who, all to a bird, forsake the northern parts of 
Europe at the approach of winter. “ Gralle tanquam conjurat@ 
unantmtiter in fugam sé conpictunt; ne carum unicam quidem tnter 
