A VOYAGE TO HEARD' S ISLAND. 137 



limbs, how comfortable I was to be, and in fact, 

 I was on the eve of sweet slumber when, " Whoo, 

 hoo-hoo-hoo, whooo, whooo ! " came from the tree 

 just over me. The voice restored me to con- 

 sciousness. I seemed to see through my tent 

 and the darkness of the pine foliage to the 

 top of the tree, where in the moonlight sat a 

 great bird with staring yellow eyes and feathery 

 horns, looking now at the moon on her voyage 

 from Fairhaven westward, and then at our smoul- 

 dering fire, or at me, supine in my mummy case. 

 " Whoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, whooo, whooo ! " came 

 again, and its melancholy vibrations set my nerves 

 to its rhythm, so that after it ceased it seemed 

 to continue to echo in my mind's ear. Wide 

 awake, I found myself measuring the time until 

 it should come again. " Whoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, 

 whooo, whooo ! " The thrill which the last two 

 prolonged sighing notes sent through me was 

 wonderful. They seemed to penetrate every 

 fibre of my brain and quiver there as heated air 

 quivers before the eye at midsummer midday. 

 I thought of the theory that birds' notes are but 

 imitations of sounds which they hear most fre- 

 quently, and this song of the great horned owl 

 above me seemed akin to the moaning of night 

 winds in the hollows of dead trees. 



After a sleepless hour or more had passed, I 

 sat up and peered out of the little window at the 



