Concord, Mass.
1903.
October &
November
(No 8)
  It was 4.15 by my watch when, awakened by the
unearthly outcry of this Owl, I jumped out of bed and lighted
a candle. Its light did not seem to disturb him but when,
shortly afterwards, I made a slight noise by opening one of the
windows he became silent and continued so for several minutes.
Excepting during this period and another somewhat briefer one
he yelled and hooted at short, irregular intervals until 4.35,
after which I heard him no more that morning. I could
detect no traces of dawn in the East when he ceased his clamor.
The night was clear, mild and windless with no light save
that given by the stars.
  It did not occur to me while I was listening to this bird
that he could possibly be a Great Horned Owl. A week or two later,
however, as I was strolling at evening through Birch Field, I heard
in the direction of Lawrence's pines a similar if not identical
hooting repeated a dozen times or more and on each occasion
answered, or at least closely followed, by the typical hoot
(hoo, hoo - hoo, hoo, hoo) of a Great Horned Owl - evidently another
bird perched at no great distance from the first and in the 
same piece of woods.
  Still later (on ) I heard, also in the evening
twilight and evidently in one of the large oaks below the barn,
a bird which called eh or aigh in nasal tones with a marked
rising inflation as it were asking a question. This note gradually
changed to a broader one sounding like ah and resembling the
wah heard on the morning of October 3. It was not, however,
quite the same in tone nor anything like so loud and
startling.
  These observations considered together & in connection with the
fact that a Great Horned Owl that I found with young in Lawrence's
woods of May 5, 1901 hooted by day & in plain sight of me in a manner
not unlike that of the bird heard on October 3, 1903 incline me to
suspect that all the sounds above mentioned were made by Bubo virginianus.