Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Bubo virginianus. (?)
1893,
October 7.
(2)
Lake Umbagog.
Pine Point.
sufficiently uncanny to make my flesh creep and the cold shivers
run up my back, despite the knowledge of their origin, and the in-
tense interest with which I listened to them for nearly half an
hour. The bird made three distinct sounds which may be roughly
characterized as a yell, a whistle, and a hoot. The yell was re-
peated from four to six times a minute and was often continued for
several minutes in succession. Then the bird would hoot from one
to three times and immediately afterwards begin yelling again. It
whistled only twice or rather there were only two whistling peri-
od's. The yell varied greatly in tone and expression and somewhat
in form, one variation usually running gradually into another
through intermediate forms. The three typical or extreme forms
were haink, very similar to the cry of Ardea herodias, ah' ouk,
exceedingly like the honk of the Canada Goose, and a snarling cat-
like scream. The haink was not louder than that of the Heron;
the other cries could probably have been heard a mile away.
The hoot ordinarily consisted of seven syllables
hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo) with a distinct pause after the
first and a slight pause after the sixth. An eighth hoo was occa-
sionally added, sometimes before, sometimes after the others. Once
the bird called simply ho-ho-ho-ho-ho. Its voice when hooting was
softer and less sonorous than these at of the Great Horned Owl, less
deep and hollow than that of the Barred Owl. Indeed, it was rather
a coo than a hoot and possessed a gentle dove-like quality in
strange contrast with the truly fiendish character of the yells