Ornithological and Other Oddities 



where they are found, are the little hornless 

 species of which the bird of Minerva {Athene 

 noctzca) is the type. This little bird, called the 

 "Little Owl" by English naturalists — although 

 there are species only half its size — was so common 

 in ancient Athens that " to take owls to Athens" 

 was the classical equivalent for "carrying coals to 

 Newcastle." It is a useful little vermin-destroyer, 

 and is fortunately quite common in some parts of 

 England, where it has been introduced, for its 

 natural occurrence in our islands is very doubtful. 

 The little Indian owls {Athene drama) differ from 

 the European bird chiefly in being barred on the 

 breast, instead of longitudinally striped ; but their 

 habits seem to be much the same. They are 

 very domestic creatures, living in suitable crevices 

 about buildings, and coming out with noisy cack- 

 ling when the crows will let them. In Calcutta, 

 where the crow is monarch of all he surveys, these 

 owlets have to stay indoors till dusk. I have seen 

 a crow, on his way to bed, stop to hunt an early 

 owlet into a tree, evidently as a matter of prin- 

 ciple. The crows number the big eagle-owls 

 among their few enemies — a great point in the 

 said owls' favour, by the way — and evidently 

 think it just as well to suppress all owls, possibly 

 thinking the little ones may grow bigger. Up 

 country, where crows are comparatively scarce, 



I have seen the little owlet regularly coming out 



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