NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 143 



all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch-pipe set at 

 concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. He will examine 

 the nightingales next spring. 



I am, &c. &c. - 



LETTER X. 



TO THE SAME. 



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 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 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 disagreeable 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 transi- 

 tions 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 northern parts of 

 Europe at the approach of winter. " Grallcs tanquam conjurata 

 iinanimiter in fiigam se conjiciunt ; ne earum iinicam quidem inter 



