LETTER X 1 



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 pro- 

 ceed from different species, or only from various indi- 

 viduals ? 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 



1 This letter is not in the British Museum MSS.- 

 36 



-[R. B. S.] 



