LETTER X. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Aug. is/, 1771. 



EAR 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, re- 

 marks 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 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 



