OWLS IN A VILLAGE 177 



in every cottage it would be known that an apple had 

 dropped. On some days the sound of the threshing- 

 machine would be heard a mile or two away ; in that 

 still atmosphere it was like the prolonged hum of 

 some large fly magnified a million times. A musical 

 sound, buzzing or clear, at times tremulous, rising or 

 falling at intervals, it would swell and fill the world, 

 then grow faint and die away. This is one of the 

 artificial sounds which, like distant chimes, harmonise 

 with rural scenes. 



Towards evening the children were all at play, 

 their shrill cries and laughter sounding from all parts 

 of the village. Then, when the sun had set and the 

 landscape grew dim, they would begin to call to one 

 another from all sides in imitation of the wood owl's 

 hoot. During these autumn evenings the children 

 at this spot appeared to drop naturally into the owl's 

 note, just as in spring in all parts of England they 

 take to mimicking the cuckoo's call. Children are 

 like birds of a social and loquacious disposition in 

 their fondness for a set call, a penetrative cry or note, 

 by means of which they can converse at long dis- 

 tances. But they have no settled call of their own, 

 no cry as distinctive as that of one of the lower 

 animals. They mimic some natural sound. In the 

 case of the children of these Midland villages it is 



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