NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 1 19 



LETTER X 



SELBORNE, Aug. ist, 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 neighbor 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 hoot- 

 ing to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. 

 Query. Do these different notes proceed from different spe- 

 cies, or only from various individuals ? 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 dis- 

 agreeable 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 transitions 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 grallce, who, all to a bird, forsake the north- 

 ern parts of Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallce tan- 

 quam conjuratce, unanimiter infugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum 

 unicam quidem internos habitantem invenire possimus ; utenim 

 (estate in australibus degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum y 

 terramque siccam ; ita nee infrigidis ob eandem causam" says 

 Ekmarck the Swede, in his ingenious little treatise called 

 " Migrationes Avium," which by all means you ought to read 



