INTRODUCTION. 5 



bell, or gentle strokes on a piece of metal, or the action 

 of a file upon a saw. It goes on, with intervals of inter- 

 ruption, throughout the hours of darkness. People attri- 

 bute it to a bird which they call the Whetsaw ; but 

 nobody pretends to have seen it, so that this can only 

 be considered a conjecture, though a highly probable 

 one. The monotony and pertinacity of this tone had 

 a strange charm for me, increased doubtless by the 

 mystery that hung over it. Night after night it would 

 be heard in the same spot, invariably the most sombre 

 and gloomy recesses of the black-timbered forest. 



" I occasionally watched for it, resorting to the woods 

 before sunset, and waiting till darkness ; but, strange to 

 say, it refused to perform under such conditions. The 

 shy and recluse bird, if bird it is, was doubtless aware of 

 the intrusion, and on its guard. 



"I was riding late at night, and just at midnight came 

 to a very lonely part of the wood, where the black forest 

 rose on each side. Everything was profoundly still ; and 

 the measured tramp of my horse's feet on the frozen 

 road was felt as a relief to the deep and oppressive 

 silence ; when suddenly, from the sombre woods, rose 

 the clear, metallic tinkle of the Whetsaw. The sound, 

 all unexpected as it was, was very striking ; and though 

 it was bitterly cold, I drew up for some time to listen 

 to it. In the darkness and silence of the hour, that 

 regularly measured sound, proceeding, too, from so 

 gloomy a spot, had an effect on my mind, solemn and 

 unearthly, yet not unmingled with pleasure." 



At the other side of St. George's Channel the hooting 

 of the Brown or Tawny Owl has a weird and yet attrac- 

 tive effect. I have stood for a long time to listen to it, 



