OF SELBORNE. 335 



cital of a conversation which passed between two owls, 

 reclaimed a sultan, before delighting in conquest and 

 devastation l ; but I would be thought only to mean that 

 many of the winged tribes have various sounds and 

 voices adapted to express their various passions, wants, 

 and feelings ; such as anger, fear, love, hatred, hunger, 

 and the like. All species are not equally eloquent ; 

 some are copious and fluent, as it were, in. their utter- 

 ance, while others are confined to a few important 

 sounds : no bird, like the fish kind, is quite mute, though 

 some are rather silent. The language of birds is very 

 ancient, and, like other ancient modes of speech, very 

 elliptical ; little is said, but much is meant and under- 

 stood. 



The notes of the eagle kind are shrill and piercing ; 

 and about the season of nidification much diversified, 

 as I have been often assured by a curious observer of 

 Nature who long resided at Gibraltar, where eagles 

 abound. The notes of our hawks much resemble those 

 of the king of birds. Owls have very expressive notes ; 

 they hoot in a fine vocal sound, much resembling the 

 vox humana, and reducible by a pitch-pipe to a musical 

 key 2 . This note seems to express complacency and 

 rivalry among the males: they use also a quick call 

 and a horrible scream; and can snore and hiss when 

 they mean to menace. Ravens, beside their loud croak, 



1 See Spectator, vol. vii. No. 512. 



2 The brown owl hoots ; the white owl screams. 



It appears that amongst the various caprices of St. Patrick, he admitted 

 the screech-owl into Ireland, but excluded the hooters. To counteract 

 his machinations, some years ago a gentleman took over to Ireland some 

 brown owls to turn out by the lake of Killarney, where he was not 

 satisfied with the screeching generation. I never heard whether he was 

 successful in establishing a colony of hooters. W. H. 



Sir William Jardine says the white or barn owl hoots, and he has shot 

 it in the act of hooting. Mr. Waterton is disposed to deny this, and says 

 the tawny owl is the only owl which hoots : " About an hour before day- 

 break," he adds, " I hear with extreme delight its loud, clear, and sono- 

 rous notes, resounding far and near through hill and dale. Very different 

 from these is the screech of the barn owl." RENNIE. 



