IS THE HOOT JOYOUS ? 57 



What says Sir Walter Scott ? 



u Of all the birds in bush or tree 

 Commend me to the owl ; 

 For he may best ensample be 

 To those the cup that troul. 

 For when the sun hath left the west, 

 He chooses the tree that he loves the best, 

 And he whoops out his song, and he laughs out his jest ; 

 Then, though hours be late and weather foul, 

 We'll drink to the health of the bonny, bonny owl." 



Once more, in his delightful poem on Spring, a 

 poem which happens to have secured the first place 

 in that best of all anthologies, the Golden Treasury, 

 Nash couples the hoot of the owl with two at least 

 of the most joyous sounds in Nature, the " jug-jug- 

 jug of the nightingale," and that of the wanderer 

 "who tells his name to all the hills," the cuckoo 



" Spring, the sweet spring, is the year's pleasant King : 

 Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring, 

 Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing, 



Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-wee, to-witta-woo ! 

 The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet. 

 Young lovers meet* old wives a-sunning sit, 

 In every street these tunes our ears do greet 



Cuckoo, jug-jug, pee-wee, to-witta-woo ! 

 Spring ; the sweet spring ! " 



It is not quite clear to me what bird is indicated by 

 the mysterious sound " pee-wee." Can it be the 



