This
bird is most punctual in beginning its song exactly at the close of
day; so exactly that I have known it strike up more than once or
twice just at the report of the Portsmouth evening gun, which we
can hear when the weather is still. It appears to me past all doubt
that its notes are formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the
parts of its windpipe, formed for sound, just as cats pur. You will
credit me, I hope, when I tell you that, as my neighbours were
assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill where we
drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled on the cross of
that little straw edifice and began to chatter, and continued his note
for many minutes: and we were all struck with wonder to find that
the organs of that little animal, when put in motion, gave a sensible
vibration to the whole building! This bird also sometimes makes a
small squeak, repeated four or five times; and I have observed that
to happen when the cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying way
through the boughs of a tree.
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