14 Habits of the Barn Owl, 



eggs of their pigeon, they lay the saddle on the wrong horse. 

 They ought to put it on the rat. Formerly I could get very 

 few young pigeons till the rats were excluded effectually 

 from the dovecot. Since that took place, it has produced 

 a great abundance every year, though the barn owls frequent 

 it, and are encouraged all around it. The barn owl merely 

 resorts to it for repose and concealment. If it were really an 

 enemy to the dovecot, we should see the pigeons in com- 

 motion as soon as it begins its evening flight ; but the pigeons 

 heed it not : whereas, if the sparrowhawk or windhover should 

 make their appearance, the whole community would be up at 

 once, proof sufficient that the barn owl is not looked upon 

 as a bad, or even a suspicious, character by the inhabitants of 

 the dovecot. 



Till lately, a great and well-known distinction has always 

 been made betwixt the screeching and the hooting of owls. 

 The tawny owl is the only owl which hoots ; and when I am 

 in the woods after poachers, about an hour before daybreak, 

 I hear with extreme delight its loud, clear, and sonorous 

 notes, resounding far and near through hill and dale. Very 

 different from these notes is the screech of the barn owl. But 

 Sir William Jardine informs us that this owl hoots; and 

 that he has shot it in the act of hooting. This is stiff autho- 

 rity ; and I believe it because it comes from the pen of Sir 

 William Jardine. Still, however, methinks that it ought to 

 be taken in a somewhat diluted state ; 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. 

 Thus, Franklin brought down fire from the skies : — " Eripuit 

 fulmen coelo, sceptrumque tyrannis." * Paganini has led all 

 London captive, by a single piece of twisted catgut : — " Tu 

 potes reges comitesque stultos ducere."f Leibnitz tells us 

 of a dog in Germany that could pronounce distinctly thirty 

 words. Goldsmith informs us that he once heard a raven 

 whistle the tune of the " Shamrock," with great distinctness, 

 truth, and humour. With these splendid examples before 

 our eyes, may we not be inclined to 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 know- 

 ledge (una de multis J, as Horace said of Miss Danaus), en- 

 dowed, perhaps, from its early days with the faculty of hoot- 

 ing, or else skilled in the art by having been taught it by 



* '* He snatched lightning from heaven, and the sceptre from tyrants." 

 + '* Thou canst lead kings and their silly nobles." 

 \ " One out of many." 



