and its Benefits to Man. 1 1 



against the family of the owl, I think I only know of one little 

 ode which expresses any pity for it. Our nursery maid used 

 to sing it to the tune of the Storm, " Cease rude Boreas, 

 blust'ring railer." I remember the first two stanzas of it : — 



" Once I was a monarch's daughter. 

 And sat on a lady's knee ; 

 But am now a nightly rover, 

 Banish'd to the ivy tree. 



Crying, hoo hoo, hoo hoo, hoo hoo, 

 Hoo hoo hoo, my feet are cold ! 



Pity me, for here you see me, 

 Persecuted, poor, and old.'* 



I beg the reader's pardon for this exordium. I have intro- 

 duced it, in order to show how little chance there has been, 

 from days long passed and gone to the present time, of study- 

 ing the haunts and economy of the owl, because its unmerited 

 bad name has created it a host of foes, and doomed it to de- 

 struction from all quarters. Some few, certainly, from time 

 to time, have been kept in cages and in aviaries. But nature 

 rarely thrives in captivity, and very seldom appears in her 

 true character when she is encumbered with chains, or is to 

 be looked at by the passing crowd through bars of iron. 

 However, the scene is now going to change ; and I trust that 

 the reader will contemplate the owl with more friendly feelings, 

 and quite under different circumstances. Here, no rude 

 schoolboy ever approaches its retreat ; and those who once 

 dreaded its diabolical doings are now fully satisfied that it no 

 longer meddles with their destinies, or has any thing to do 

 with the repose of their departed friends. Indeed, human 

 wretches in the shape of body-snatchers seem here in Eng- 

 land to have usurped the office of the owl in our church- 

 yards ; " et vendunt tumulis corpora rapta suis." * 



Up to the year 1813, the barn owl had a sad time of it at 

 Walton Hall. Its supposed mournful notes alarmed the 

 aged housekeeper. She knew full well what sorrow it had 

 brought into other houses when she was a young woman ; 

 and there was enough of mischief in the midnight wintry 

 blast, without having it increased by the dismal screams of 

 something w^hich people knew very little about, and which 

 every body said was far too busy in the churchyard at night- 

 time. Nay, it was a well-known fact, that if any person were 

 sick in the neighbourhood, it would be for ever looking in at 

 the window, and holding a conversation outside with some- 

 body, they did not know whom. The gamekeeper agreed 

 with her in every thing she said on this important subject; 

 and he always stood better in her books when he had 



P " And sell bodies torn from their tombs." 



