not a hoot. a single soft oo, somewhere between a question and a closing door, given by the library owl from the lintel of the reading room or the cornice above the periodicals. it is delivered, paused upon, and delivered again, never with a hurry.
most readers do not hear it. those who do tend to be the ones already listening. the call has been timed once, by a custodian with a pocket-watch, at fourteen seconds between repetitions. on another evening it was thirty-eight. there is no agreed interval.
— she answered me, or i thought she did. it may have been the radiator. — m. r., a reader.