80 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



The following is a newspaper cutting. The species is not 

 mentioned, but I have read of a Tawny Owl (Strix stridula, 

 Lin.) giving a man who ventured to meddle with its young 

 such a'box on the ears that his face was lacerated, and it 

 might have easily cost him an eye; but I cannot credit an 

 Owl taking vengeance for her ravished offspring four days 

 after their abduction : — 



" The Avranchin states that in a Commune, near Avraiiches (in 

 Normandie), an Owl has taken terrible vengeance for the loss of 

 her young, which had been killed by a farmer's lad. For four days 

 the Owl was on the watch, and on the fifth, upon the boy leaving 

 the farm-house, the injured bird, which had been perched upon a 

 tree, pounced down upon him, and with one stroke of its claws tore 

 out his left eye, the sight of which is permanently destroyed." 



On the 27th I drove by way of Thionville to Longwy 

 with Mr. S. James Capper, who has given a lengthy but 

 very graphic account of our ride and its results in his 

 "Wanderings in Wartime." It was a long way. About 

 two o'clock in the afternoon of the second day I caught 

 sight of our destination, and joyfully exclaimed, " There is 

 Longwy!" "No," said my companion, "it is a ruin." We 

 were both right. Longwy it was, and as utter a ruin as 

 modern artillery could make it. This celebrated fortress, 

 built by the great Vauban, had capitulated two days before 

 at 10 a.m., and was now the disastrous chaos which we saw. 

 Sixty out of its 300 houses were computed to be entirely 

 destroyed, and most of the rest were much battered. Of 

 course the petroleum had set some on fire. A few of them 

 were not yet extinguished : I even saw one in flames. All 

 the public buildings — the cavalry barracks, the artillery 

 caserne, the hospital, the church, etc., were more or less 

 destroyed. The main thoroughfares were blocked with debris 

 of stones, slates, laths, and rafters; and every street was 

 besprinkled with hundreds of fragments of bombs of all 

 shapes and sizes. We had come away from Metz directly 



