The sound of a hoot, or the occasion of producing this sound
1818, John Franklin, The Journey to the Polar Sea Chapter , One small species, which is known to them by its melancholy nocturnal hootings (for as it never appears in the day few even of the hunters have ever seen it) is particularly ominous.
1877, Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall Chapter , The hootings of this unhappy gentleman may generally be heard in the still evenings, when the rooks are all at rest; and I have often listened to them of a moonlight night with a kind of mysterious gratification.