The Butler weekly times., 1890-09-10
NOISES or The NIGHT.
Calls and Cries Which Bespeak Animated
Nocturnal Life.


Calls and Cries Which Bespeak Animated
Nocturnal Life.
There is always something abroad
some creature of the fields and woods
which by its voice or movements is be-
trayed. Just as in IN old rambling
house there are always strange noises
that can not be accounted for, so in the
bye-paths of nature there are innumera-
BILE sounds which can never be local
lied. TO those, however, who pursue
night vocations in the country-game-
keepers, poachers and others-there are
ALWAYS calls and cries which bespeak
life as animate under the night as that
of the day. This is attributable to va
rious animals and birds, to night-fying
insects, and even to fish. Let US track
some of these sounds to their source
when comes still evening on, and twi-
light gray hath in her sober hv'ry all
things ciad"-then it is that the
white owl comes abroad. Passing the
remains of an old baronial hall, its
piercing screech comes from the dis
mantled tower. Here the owls have
lived time out OF mind, and we have
seen and heard them, asleep and awake,
through every hour of the day and night
1t is unnatural history to assert-as Mr..
Grey asserts-that the barn owls ever
NOPE, or mourn, or are melancholy.
Neither are they grave monks, nor an
chorites nor pillared saints. A boding
bird or dolorous! Nonsense; they are
none of these. They issue forth as very
| devils, and, like another spirit of the
| night, sail about seeking whom they
may devour The barn owl is the
''screech" owl Of the bird literature; the
brown owl the true hooting owl. This
species is found in old and heavily-tim-
bered districts, and it particularly loves
the dark and somber gloom of resinous
pine woods. But the barn owl is
only the precursor OF new life
life as animate under the night
as that Of the birds and
butterflies under the day. We follow
the path by the river. and on through
the meadows. Among the nut-bush tops
bat is hawking for night-fiying insects.
Great white moths get up from the
grass, and 60 looming away through the
darkness. A bend in the stream brings
us to a quiet river reach with brown
pebbles sand shallow. A sentinel
heron. that has been standing watchful
on one leg, rises and flaps languidly
away down the river reach. The con-
sumptive figure of the gaunt bird stands
by the stream through all weathers.
He knows not times nor seasons, and is
. great poacher. In the wind. when he
takes his lone stand, his loose. hutter-
ing feathers look like driftwood caught
in the bushes. He reminds one of
the consumptive! But unlike him,
has wonderful powers of diges-
ltion, and, withal. an immense
Icapacity for hsh. Woe to the luckless
lmort or trout that comes within reaoh
LOT his formidable pike, or the attack
ling peregriae that he attempts to i'm
Ipale on his bill The heron is es-
sontially wanderer, and like Words
worth's immortal leeeh-Tatherer, he
roams from pond to pond, from moor to
moor. Herons come and 90 BY the
same routes; and night after night have
we flushed our fisher from the self-same
shallow. The peculiarly wild whistle
of the curfew comes from out the night
sky, and swifts screech for An hour after
darkness has fallen. We are now by
the 'covet side. and strange 'chur-
tring" sound comes from the glades; it
approaches nearer and nearer un-
til loud Mapping is heard in
the bushes. The object ap.
proaches quite closely, and it is seen
that the noise is produced by large
bird striking its wings together as they
meet behind. Even in the darkness II
may be detected that each wing is
crossed by definite white bar. The
bird is the goatsucker or nightjar. Had
we it in our hand. @ should see that i,
was a connecting link between the owls
and the swallows, having the soft plum
age and noiseless fight Of the one. and
the wide cape of the other. The object
of the noise it produces is probably te
disturb from tho bushes the large night
flying moths upon which it feeds
Cornhill Magazine.