A CURIOUS TRADITION. 89 



Nuttall, the north country nurses would have it that the 

 owl was a daughter of Pharaoh, and when they heard it 

 hoot on a winter's night, they sang to the wondering child — 



" Oh ! 6 o 6, 6 5 ; 

 I once was a king's daughter, and sat on my father's knee, 

 But now I 'm a poor hoolet, and hide in a hollow tree." 



There is much difference of opinion amongst naturalists 

 as to whether the power of hooting and shrieking is 

 possessed by the same species. In the following passage 

 from Julius Ccesar (Act i. Sc. 3), both sounds are at- 

 tributed to the same bird : — 



" Yesterday the bird of night did sit, 

 Even at noonday, upon the market-place, 

 Hooting and shrieking." 



It is generally supposed that the common barn or white 

 owl does not hoot, but only shrieks, and is, in fact, the 

 bird always alluded to as the " screech-owl," while the 

 brown owls (Strix otus, brachyotus, and aluco) are the 

 hooters — 



" The clamorous owl, that nightly hoots." 



Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. Sc. 2. 



But Mr. Colquhoun, speaking of the white or barn owl, 

 says,* " It does hoot, but very rarely. I heard one six 

 times in succession, and then it ceased." Sir William 



* " The Moor and the Loch." 



N 



