FAMILY Bubonide. 
So Iconcluded to put the matter to the test by giving son- 
orously the full Screech Owl song in a series of quavering 
whistles running down the scale. In less than five seconds 
there appeared in the dusk of the evening half a dozen 
young Screech Owls, who flew about with silent wings, 
and at last perched upon the rustic fence, the arbor, and 
the old boat which was filled with garden flowers. They 
had answered my call promptly, and had come to see 
‘‘what wasup!” Their notes were simply weird, a sort 
of cross between a sneeze and the wheeze of a pair of 
leathern bellows with the wail of a ‘‘ half-frozen puppy ” 
(Wilson’s simile) farown in to make matters more mys- 
terious! I shortly came to the conclusion that these 
were young birds which had not yet learned to sing 
properly, so I gave them a lesson or two, at the same 
time profiting by the experience, and getting in a few 
lessons for myself. The interview proving satisfactory 
or unsatisfactory (I do not know which) the birds flew 
away. But I had got a new idea of variety in Owl 
music, and had learned that the following familiar dul- 
cet tones were not by any means all of the repertoire of 
the Screech Owl. 
Tremando. 
fl) aS: 1 
A OF TE oOUePrareareararer@aia J 
(7s RES OE PS OE Ge SS DD 4 g- 
SA S| a CS (aa a a HRA a He 1H a 
My annotations have, in most instances, proved very 
similar to those of Mr. Cheney whose verbal description 
of the song can not be improved upon. He writes: ‘* This 
owl ascends the scale generally not more than one or two 
degrees” (i. e., one or two tones) ; ‘‘ the charm lies in the 
manner of his descent sometimes by a third, again by a 
fourth, and still again by a sixth. I can best describe it 
I2 
