St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-07-19
Jim Frazier's Owl PARTY.

"WeSt virginia seems TO be taVOrite
region tor OWLS" said John Lochlin OF
Pittsburg, land ! was highly amused
participant once in what they call an owl
marty down there. / was camping on a
trout stream in the Cumberland Noun.
tains, attended by Jim Frazier, grizzly
old woodsman and mountaineer. lust
as it was getting dark one muggv,
cloudy day, l was sitting in the cabin
door smoking, and Jim, after an inspec-
tion of the surroundings aud conditions
with his weather eye, said:
This is gointer be fit night for an
owl party. Shell | git We up one?'
That was the first | heard OF such a
thing as an owl party.
Il don't know what you mean, lin.
said |.
This is gointer be a fit night for an
owl party, he repeated. Shell l git We
up one?
lin had a way of doing things and
explaining them alterward, so l knew
that if | wanted to learn what an owl
party was would have to wait and see.
Certainly l said. Get me up one,
OF course
That was all that was said or done
about it at the time, but when darkness
had settled down Jim stood up in front
of the cabin and sent out on the night
wind good imitation of the mournful
cry of the boot owl. After half minute
of silence he repeated the cry. Presently
from away off in the woods somewhere
came an answer, mourfful and prolong-
ed:
'Too.whoo Too-whoo! whoo-o-
o.o-on
That's one old chap that'll be to our
party, anyhow, said Jim; and again he
repeated the cry. 1t was responded to
by the owl, this time nearer, and his
notes had scarcely died away in the
similar cry was heard.
Two of 'em, said the old hunter.
And so he kept on, Stimulating the
notes of the owl, until his calls were an
swered from every part of the surround
ing woods, each answering bird drawing
nearer and nearer at every response. In
ten minutes time, from the trees over our
heads, in front and all around the cabin,
dozen pairs of fiery eyes were glazing
down at us from the darkness. When
the old woodsman uttered his cry softly
chorus of soft, cooling responses met it
from the owls in the trees. If he hurled
it in resounding volume at the ghostly
assembage, from each throat beneath
pair of blazing eyes would come col
lection of the most unearthly sounds
that human being ever stood still and
listened to. Short, staccato yelps, like
the frightened barking of dog blood
curdling gurgings and gaspings, as of a
person being strangled loud swapping oil
the hooked mandibles, and hair.raisng
finale of too WHO'S, too WHO'S. Then
an owl here and an owl there would take
wing and glide about among the branch
es in their ghostly, noseless way and pass
by us so swift and close that we could
feel on our faces the wind from their silent
wings.
For an hour this exhibition was kept
up by the old woodsman' S def manGuvr-
ing, sometimes with variations that
were convulsingly ludicrous and some
times with accompaniment sufficiently
demoniacal to scare a man into fits.
After he had ceased to provoke the owls
to further performances, they remained
in the trees a quarter OF an hour or more,
swapping their bills together and giving
voice to various uncanny sounds. Then
they began to fit away, one by one,
in the darkness, until they had all disap.
peared and sought their regular nightly
vocations in that range of country.
'Givin' owl parties is trick that's as
old as the hills down in this kentry, said
Jim. Owls ken be called jest like that
most any night, but muggy night like
this one is the best. | don't know what
they think they come for, but if thas one
within sound of yer voice when We give
the call-and an owl can hear consider
able turder than two miles-itll answer
We and gradu'ly make its way toward We
till at last its yer company come to visit.
I've had as many as six dozen OF 'em
hobnobbin' with me all to wunst. Owls
will put off everything else they've got
on hand and set and visit with We all
night yen keep on talkin' to 'em and
they'll jaw back as fast and as sassy as
you ken jaw at them.
Jim, Just at dusk one evening, got
me up whippoorwill party: Byimitat-
ing the plaintive call OF that nocturnal
bird he soon had score or more of them
fluttering noiselessly about the cabin,
never lighting, but swooping about, and
keeping up the curious gathering and
swapping of their hairy beaks that is
Characteristic of their kind.
i couldn't do that if it wasn't June,
said Jim The whippoorwill don't
whistle 'cept in that month, and it's the
he'teller that docs it. That whistle is
his love call, and all them whippoorwills
had caperin' round here so was O.
tother sex and was 'spectin' to find a
mate here, hearin' the call.
i'm assured me that could get up an
owl party or whippoorwil party just
as well as he could, but various persis-
tent trials proved that he was wrong.
1t seemed to me that initiated the cries
OF the owl and the whippoorwillas close
y as he did, but not response could |
receive to my invitation. No sooner
would Jim pipe up or boot, though, than
the answerers would begin to come. 1t
was most amazing, and from the way
old Jim grinned imagine he induced the
test just to show me that you had to be
born in the woods to call an owl"
New York Sun.
1t Fishes While You Rest.