XLV.] OF SELBORNE. 127 
LETTEli XLV. 
TO THE BOX DURABLE DAIXES BARRING TOX. 
From what follows, it will appear that neither owls nor cuckoos 
keep to one note. My nmsical friend remarks that many (most) 
of his owls hoot in B Hat; hut that one went almost half a note 
below A. The pipe he tried their notes by was a common half- 
crown pitch-pipe, such as masters use for the tuning of harpsi- 
chords; it was the common London pitch. 
A neighbour of mine, who is said to have a nice ear, remarks 
that the owls about this village hoot in three different keys — in 
G flat, or F sharp, in B Hat and A flat. He heard two hooting 
to each other, the one in A flat, and the other in B flat. Do 
these different notes proceed from different species, or only from 
various individuals? The same person finds upon tiial that the 
note of the cuckoo (of which we have but one species) varies in 
different individuals ; for, about Selborne wood, he found they 
were mostly in D : he heard two sing together, the one in D, the 
other in D sharp, which made a disagreeable concert ; he after- 
wards heard one in D sharp, and about Wolmer Forest some in 
C ^ As to nightingales, he says that their notes are so short 
and their transitions so rapid, that he cannot w^ell ascertain their 
key. Perhaps in a cage, and in a room, their notes may be more 
distinguishable. This person has tried to settle the notes of a 
1 The editor of the edition of 1822 remarks that the cuckoo begins early 
in the season with a tray or third, next to a fourth, then a fifth, after which 
his voice breaks without attaining a sixth ; a very old observation, however, 
seeing it is the subject of an epigram in the scarce black letter " Epigrams 
of John Heywood," dated 1587 : — - 
" Use maketh maistry, this liath been said ahvay ; 
But all is not alway as all men do say. 
In April, the koocoo can sing her song by rote, 
In June of tune she cannot sing a note : 
At first koocoo, koocoo, sing still can she do ; 
At last kooke, kooke, kooke, six kookes to one con/' 
