NOTES OF OWLS REDWINGS. 117 



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 individuals ? 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, and the other in D 

 sharp, which 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 transitions 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 

 conjurattB unanimiter in fugam se conjiciunt ; ne earum unlearn 

 quidem inter nos habitantem invenire possimus ; ut enim testate in 

 australibus degere nequeunt ob defectum lumbricorum, terramque 

 siccam ; ita nee infrigidis ob eandem causam" says Ekmarkthe 

 Swede, in his ingenious little treatise called Migrationes Avium, 

 which by all means you ought to read, while your thoughts 

 run on the subject of migration. See Amaenitates Academics, 

 vol. iv. p. 565. 



Birds may be so circumstanced as to be obliged to migrate 

 in one country, and not in another; but the grallce (which 

 procure their food from marshes and boggy ground) must, in 

 winter, forsake the more northerly parts of Europe, or perish 

 for want of food. 



* In the very severe winter of 1799, immense flocks of redwings 

 resorted to the west of England, where a sudden fall of snow, unusually 

 deep in that quarter, cut off these poor birds from all supply of food ; and 

 being reduced to too great weakness to attempt a passage over the ocean 

 to some more congenial climate, thousands of them, as well as fieldfares, 

 were starved to death. ED. 



