NOTES AND QUERIES. 235 



purpose of identifying and describing the calls, and I can most posi- 

 tively state that the calls of the birds of this neighbourhood are totally 

 unlike the sounds of " roo-oo" or " whr-oo " ; and I may remark that 

 I have had an Owl calling for hours within ten yards of my bedroom 

 window ; so there was no possibility of mistaking the calls for anything 

 but the usual long-drawn " oo, oo." 



Sound No. 2. — This is the alarm-note and angry call of the female 

 Owl when anyone approaches her young, even long after they have left 

 the nest, and she flits about from tree to tree loudly " quarking " as 

 long as the intruder remains near ; and this " quarking " note of the 

 mother frequently betrays the locality of the young birds when sitting 

 on a branch unseen at first. No doubt but this cry may be also 

 emitted by the male, and I have only once heard it in winter from a 

 bird that had one evening just fled across the lawn. I have never 

 heard it uttered by the young birds at any time, and if they were 

 capable of or wished to utter this call I must have heard it from 

 a clutch of four that were hatched and reared in a tree in our flower- 

 garden not more than ten yards from my bedroom window. They 

 were a great annoyance, for they kept up their plaintive cries for food 

 from dusk to daylight, and on dark days often began their cries as early 

 as twelve o'clock at noon. Also, for many years in succession, I have 

 taken the young, and hand-reared them until fit to be sent to the 

 Dublin Zoological Gardens, and never heard the " quarking " cry from 

 them. 



Sound No. 3. — This is caused by the bird flapping its wings (like a 

 Dove or Pigeon) as it leaves its perch on the tree when disturbed in 

 calling, or when flinging itself about on the wing as if in play, but, 

 owing to the softness of the wing-feathers, the sound of the flapping is 

 much lower and softer than that of a Dove. 



My first acquaintance with the cry of this Owl thus occurred. 

 About eight o'clock one bright moonlight night in January, 1864, I 

 was surprised by one of our servants, in a most excited state, rushing 

 into our sitting-room to say that some poor person was dying in the 

 plantation near the cattle-sheds, for she heard their dying moans, and 

 asking me to go and help the sufferer. Immediately on going out I 

 heard the moaning, but, not thinking that any person in distress could 

 be so close to the houses, I thought the moans might come from one 

 of the cows drinking ; but, entering the cow-shed, I found all quiet and 

 safe, and on coming out again I heard the moans still continuing, and 

 located them as proceeding from a tree on the edge of the little wood. 

 As I cautiously approached a dark- coloured bird left the tree quietly, 

 flapping its wings a few times, and disappeared in the shade. A few 



