WOOD NOTES WILD. 99 
predictions. On the present occasion, though it was 
almost dark, the guinea hens chimed in with their rasp- 
ing voices, and the turkeys added their best gobbles in 
happy proclamation of the warm time coming. The owl 
gave three distinct hoots in succession, repeating them at 
intervals of about two minutes at first, afterwards with 
longer pauses. The first of these tones was preceded 
by a grace note; the second was followed by a thread- 
like slide down a fourth; and at the close of the third 
was a similar descent of an octave. 
Neither slide, however, ended in a firm tone. 
White of Selborne says that one of his musical friends 
decided that, with a single exception, his owls hooted in 
B flat ; while a neighbor found the owls about the village 
hooting in “three different keys, —in G flat or F sharp, 
in B flat, and A flat.” This Yankee owl, true to the 
instincts of the soil, hooted in a key of his own, E flat. 
