WEIRD NATURE SOUNDS AT NIGHT 
NEARLY ALL SPECIES OF BIRDS AND ANIMALS ON RARE OCCASIONS GIVE 
UTTERANCE TO NOTES THAT ARE ENTIRELY ASIDE FROM THE NORMAL 
By F. AND A. BROOKS 
W E presume that almost every per- 
son who has spent much time in 
wild fox - ested regions has heard 
at night unusual animal notes that have 
been somewhat puzzling. Nearly all 
species of birds and mammals on rare 
occasions give utterance, or create in 
some way, notes or sounds that are 
entirely aside from the normal. Some 
groups, such as the owls and foxes, are 
peculiarly given to vocal aberrations that 
tend to disturb or mystify the camper or 
tramper in solitary places. The un- 
initiated, and, sometimes, the seasoned 
woodsman will be startled in dark woods 
by voices that are, temporarily at least, 
inexplicable. Investigation may fur- 
nish an easy and simple explanation of 
the disturbing sound, and, again, inves- 
tigation may be impossible or fruitless 
and the sound may haunt the hearer for 
years, furnishing one of those charmed 
mysteries which the nature lover learns 
to expect from forest solitudes. We 
have sometimes met intelligent woods- 
men who hold hazy ideas that certain 
forests in which they have camped are 
tenanted by unseen and unknown forms 
of animal life that on rare occasions give 
voice 'at night to 
weird cries that 
may never be ex- 
plained. Such 
beliefs are no 
doubt born of the 
nvystery of the 
night and of the 
deep woods com- 
bined with the 
little-known vo- 
cal possibilities 
of certain birds 
and mammals. 
The writers 
can recall several 
stories and per- 
sonal experiences 
which illustrate 
both explained 
and unexplained 
sounds heard at 
night in solitary 
places. In some 
cases a very little 
investigation revealed only “friendly 
guide-posts,” but, in other instances, 
our failure to find the sources of the 
sounds leave us still in doubt as to their 
authors. 
O N a certain occasion one of the 
writers was overtaken by night 
in a wild, sparsely inhabited, for- 
est country. As darkness was falling 
the dim outline of a deserted cabin was 
distinguished near to the trail and an 
investigation disclosed a dry place 
within in which to sleep. Near morn- 
ing the sleeper was disturbed by a 
series of loud, cat-like wails, coming, 
apparently, from somewhere in the 
woods not far away. The sounds were 
not unlike the midnight caterwauling 
of our familiar, backyard musician, but 
were wilder, clearer and many times 
louder. The series of three or four 
cries were repeated at frequent inter- 
vals and there was no more sleep for 
the camper, who pondered over the 
strange voice until daylight permitted 
him to go forth in search of its origin. 
Within five minutes he had learned 
that nearby was the clearing of a set- 
tler whose poultry flock included a trio 
of peafowls, the cock of which was 
roosting in a treetop tand had been in- 
nocently sounding his morning carol. 
Camping under very similar circum- 
stances in a deserted lumberman’s 
cabin, a friend of ours slept on a pile 
of hay beneath a low window. During 
the night he was awakened by a 
crunching, wheezy sound, and, opening 
his eyes, he looked upward at a pecu- 
liarly-shaped, moving object that ap- 
peared just ready to drop upon his face. 
The creature seemed suspended in mid 
air only a few feet above and vibrated 
with a slow movement, at the same time 
emitting a mouthy sound, as though in 
anticipation of the human feast it was 
about to enjoy. Startled into full 
wakefulness, the camper soon discerned 
by the dim moonlight that he was 
viewing the ventral aspect of the head 
of a cow thrust through the open win- 
dow for the purpose of feeding on the 
hay that composed his bed. 
On another occasion we were with a 
party camping beneath an overhanging 
rock in an extensive forest of the Ap- 
palachian region. Our provisions were 
stored in a rude cupboard formed of a 
stack of small wooden boxes near the 
place where members of the party slept. 
Every night some one or more of the 
party would hear issuing from the cup- 
board a subdued, musical, drum-like 
roll, or tattoo, altogether unlike any 
forest sound with which we were famil- 
iar. We discussed the sound frequent- 
ly, mentioning night-singing insects 
and batrachians, fluttering sounds of 
wind-blown leaves or splinters of wood 
and various other possible causes, but 
dismissed all proffered explanations as 
improbable or impossible. Camp was 
broken with the origin of the sound 
unexplained. Years afterward, while 
investigating the feeding habits of mice 
and moles, we captured several white- 
footed mice and 
kept them con- 
fined in a roomy 
cage. One even- 
ing two males 
were observed in 
a contest over the 
possession of a 
nut kernel. While 
thus engaged one 
of them suddenly 
extended its front 
foot to a resonant 
splinter project- 
ing from the 
frame of the cage 
and beat a rapid 
and ringing roll, 
which was the 
exact counterpart 
of the sound we 
had heard pro- 
ceeding from the 
cupboard at the 
camp under the 
rock. We then recalled that mice had 
made nightly raids on the provisions in 
the cupboard and the origin of the 
sound we had heard there was ex- 
plained. 
I 
O NE spring evening, just after 
nightfall, one of us was walking 
along the border of a woodland. 
Suddenly a heavy, gasping sound, like 
A White-footed Mouse was observed to extend a front foot and beat a rapid 
tattoo on a resonant splinter of wood 
