.128 The hish Natunt/isf. July, 



Times in December, 1907, on the subject of a supposed 

 luminous owl that was seen for a number of evenings during 

 that month in North Norfolk. 



■ Sir Digby Pigott, who inaugurated that correspondence, 

 had, unfortunately^ not himself seen the object in which 

 he succeeded in exciting so great an interest. It had been 

 ■described to him by various informants, who had seen a 

 light like that of a motor cycle moving sometimes low' over 

 the country, sometimes rising to a height in the air, and 

 'crossing fields, high fences, and a stream. The evenings on 

 which this light was observed appear to have been generally 

 misty. In the course of the correspondence that the story 

 excited, a West Norfolk gamekeeper declared that he had 

 'once shot one of these moving lights, and found it to be " a 

 poor old half -starved Barn Owl." Another correspondent, 

 writing from Shropshire, had known a pair of Barn Owls 

 of which either one or both (he could not certainly say 

 which) had the gift of luminosity. He: believed, however 

 that they only shone when in poor condition, and he never 

 saw more than one of them luminous at once. There is thus 

 on record more than one direct observation (though the 

 names of the observers are not stated) as to the occasional 

 presentation of a luminous appearance by the Barn Owl. 



In reference to these few cases of direct testimony (i.e. 

 the Norfolk gamekeeper and the unnamed Shropshire corres- 

 pondent) it may not be immaterial to mention that a belief 

 in the luminosity of owls evidently prevails among country 

 folk in parts of England ; since behefs of this kind, while 

 they may or may not have a foundation in fact, und(nibtedl\- 

 sometimes operate on the imaginations of those familiar 

 with them. The Shropshire correspondent of the Times, 

 for instance, narrates that he had, before \\v made the 

 acquaintance of his pair of luminous owls, been toki by 

 school children in the district that a hght \\v had seen 

 moving about was a " glim ullert " [i.e., shining owl); and 

 " ghmmer gowk" is included m Hett's "Dictionary of 

 Bird Names " amongst the popular designations of the Barn 

 Owl. It is even possible (as Sir Digby Tigott himself 

 suggests) that the same belief may have found expression 

 in the Linnean name of that species, Strix fammea. It 



