102 WOOD NOTES WILD. 
just in time to hear what I had waited for for more 
than a year. My little screech-owl had come to make 
amends for his tantalizing delays. I had heard the 
strains before but had not secured them. They were as 
follows : — 
Ah-oo, Ah-oo, Ah-00, Ah- 00, . . 4,2 
Ah *>-+ + - «+ +00, Ah-oo, Ah- 00, Ah- 00 
It is hard to believe that pleadings so gentle can 
accompany thoughts intent on plunder and blood. I do’ 
not know where to look again for so painful a contradic- 
tion as exists between the tones of this bird and his 
wicked work. Wilson, noticing the inconsistency be- 
tween his utterances and his actions, says of one he had 
in confinement, that at twilight he “flew about the room 
with the silence of thought, and perching, moaned out 
his melancholy notes with many lively gesticulations not 
at all in accordance with the pitiful tone of his ditty, 
which reminded one of a half-frozen puppy.” 
The naturalist is glad to be a “companion of owls” for 
a season, willingly taking the risk of their making night 
hideous and keeping him awake with their “ snoring.” 
