text:  "We know full well that most extraordinary examples of splendid talent do from time to time make their appearance on the world's wide stage--and may we not suppose that the barn-owl which Sir William shot in the absolute act of hooting may have been a gifted bird of superior parts and knowledge endowed perhaps from its early days with the faculty of hooting or else taught it by its neighbour the tawny owl? I beg to remark that though I unhesitatingly grant the faculty of hooting to this one particular individual owl still I flatly refuse to believe that hooting is common to barn-owls in general