LETTER X. 



To the same. 



SELBORNE, Aug. 1st, 1771. 



^AR 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, 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 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 in- 

 dividuals ? 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 Sel borne 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 disagreeable concert : he afterwards heard one in 



