1909-1910-] The Long-Eared Owl. 2.^9 



pleasure in answering that it was the one nocturnal note 

 which the authorities had not described as issuing from the 

 mouth of that bird ; but I am quite willing to forfeit the pleasure, 

 and to acknowledge with the best grace in the world that I 

 cannot tell. It is one of those pieces of bird-knowledge which 

 have come we know not when, and which remain to burden or 

 help us, I am not quite certain which, throughout our allotted 

 span. To do the authorities justice, they have collectively given 

 the Long- eared Owl considerable latitude in the matter of notes. 

 No two authorities allow it quite the same notes nor quite the 

 same number of notes — in this respect there is a very pleasing 

 exhibition of individual taste : while some generous writers 

 give it both a " barking " cry and a " mewing " note, others, 

 more parsimonious, allow it only the first or the second. One 

 prodigal gentleman grants the bird no less than four notes : 

 barking, hissing, mewing, and chirruping ; another, with more 

 sense of responsibility, perhaps, dooms the bird to perpetual 

 silence by sanctioning none at all. Several who may have con- 

 spired together, have decreed that the Long-eared Owl shall 

 not use the hoot of the Tawny ; two others, apparently outside 

 the conspiracy, provide the Long-eared with a " deep hoot," and 

 nothing else. This " deep hoot," it would seem, may or may 

 not be the hoot of the Tawny Owl, according to the discretion 

 of the Long-eared. The note which we heard that evening, 

 and which we have heard many times since, is a low-toned 

 utterance — so low-toned that amid the din of retiring Blackbirds 

 and Mavises it is barely audible. For the sake of convenience 

 I shall write it here as " whee," — " whee " is the nearest we can 

 get to it in English syllables. But " whee " does not describe 

 it. No English vocal utterance could. It is too nasal, — any 

 realistic imitation could only be produced by a co-operation of 

 mouth and nose. On several successive evenings we heard the 

 same note always coming from the southern side of the wood ; 

 and then one night, while we were listening to it, we saw an 

 Owl fly out of the Scots fir corner and return, as we thought 

 in the dim light, to the very tree where the calling Owl was 

 perched. Male and female, we concluded, and as one pair we 

 continued to consider them until April 1. April 1 upset 

 this idea, along with some others. In the first and most im- 

 portant place, it dispelled the notion that a Long-eared Owl 



