122 BIRDS OF PREY. 



birds, they are at once recognised as their insidious ene- 

 mies ; and the rareness of their appearance, before the usu- 

 al roosting-time of other birds, augments the suspicion they 

 entertain of these feline hunters. From complaints and 

 cries of alarm, the thrush* sometimes threatens blows ; 

 and though evening has perhaps set in, the smaller birds 

 and cackling Robins re-echo their shrill chirpings and 

 complaints throughout an extensive wood, until the noc- 

 turnal monster has to seek safety in a distant flight. 

 Their notes are most frequent in the latter end of sum- 

 mer and autumn, crying in a sort of wailing quiver, not 

 very unlike the whining of a puppy dog, ho, ho ho ho ho 

 ho ho, proceeding from high and clear to a low guttural 

 shake or trill ; these notes, at little intervals, are answer- 

 ed by some companion, and appear to be chiefly a call of 

 recognition from young of the same brood, or pairs who 

 wish to discover each other after having been separated 

 while dozing in the day. On moonlight evenings this 

 slender wailing is kept up nearly until midnight. 



I have had an opportunity of verifying all that Wilson 

 relates of the manners of this species in a Red, or young 

 Owl, taken out of a hollow apple tree, which I kept for 

 some months. A dark closet was his favorite retreat 

 during the day. In the evening he became very lively 

 and restless, gliding across the room in which he was 

 confined, with a side-long, noiseless flight, as if wafted by 

 the air alone ; at times he clung to the wainscot, and, 

 unable to turn, he brought his head round to his back, 

 so as to present, by the aid of his brilliant eyes, a most 

 spectral and unearthly appearance. As the eyes of all 

 the Owls, according to Wilson, are fixed immovably in 

 the socket by means of a many-cleft capsular ligament, 

 this provision for the free versatile motion of the head 



* At least Wilson's Thrush, which I have observed in the act. 



I 



