CoiiENSo. — On Athene nova^-zealaudiae. 201 



strange noises, and adjusting her feathers to suit her scornful 

 affected prude demeanour. Then the disappointed beau would 

 slowly retire, making other peculiar sounds, to his end of the 

 branch; when the lady would again come forward, very slowly 

 and coquettingly, to her old position, and in a short time the 

 gentleman owl would re-enact the solemn fun as before, only 

 to be again served in the same kind of way. Such a mixture 

 of strange sounds and grimaces, of pure bird persijiage, was 

 unique and unusual. Words fail me fully to describe them ; 

 it was most ludicrous to behold them. The usual solemn 

 gravity of the bird seems to have been abandoned or bur- 

 lesqued. I w^atched them for about half an hour, when, as 

 their play was still being carried on without alteration, I 

 returned to my tent. I could not help thinking, from observ- 

 ing the extreme suitableness of that long horizontal half- 

 denuded branch, with its bunch of leafy sprays at both ends, 

 for their wooing and serenading, — and bearing in mind how 

 confined the owl naturally is in its short flights, and prone to 

 return to its haunts and perches, — that that branch was used 

 as an old try sting-place by owls. I did laugh most heartily, 

 though quietly, at this serio-comic performance ; and when- 

 ever I have thought thereon, during these many subsequent 

 years, it has ahvays caused me to laugh outright. 



I dare say some of my audience are acquainted with that 

 charming book of Natural History, Gilbert White's "History 

 of Selborne," so highly prized at home by our fathers. To 

 those who know it, I need not say anything about it ; but to 

 those w^ho do not, I would say — it is a most interesting book, 

 written by an accomplished and loving naturalist, a keen and 

 attentive observer of Nature in her manifold forms, but 

 especially at home in his many and diverse observations on 

 birds, as well as other animals : it is not a " dry " book. Mr. 

 White was born at Selborne, in Hampshire, England, where, 

 after his return from the University of Oxford, he quietly 

 resided all his days, so spending an amiable, unambitious, and 

 useful life, and died at an advanced age, much regretted. He 

 steadily refused all church preferment, and during the last few 

 years of his life officiated as curate of Selborne. His standard 

 work has gone through several editions, and has always 

 been highly esteemed by all lovers of Nature. Here I may 

 be allowed to give a short sentence from its preface, written 

 by himself exactly a hundred years ago (1788) : "If the 

 writer should at all appear to have induced any of his readers 

 to pay a more ready attention to the wonders of the creation, 

 too frequently overlooked as common occurrences, his purpose 

 will be fully answered. But if he should not have been 

 successful in any of these his intentions, yet there remains 

 this consolation behind — that these his pursuits, by keeping 



