TAWNY OWL. 115 



Genus— SYRNIUM. 



SYRNIUM ALUCO— Tawny Owl. 



[Sfn'x ahico — Yarrell?\^ 



'Tis the middle of the night by the castle clock 

 And the Owls have awakened the crowing cock ! 



Tu-whit ! Tu-whoo ! 

 And hark again ! the crowing cock, 



How lazily he crew. 



CoLKRiDGE— CAristoftcZ. 



The loud clear hoot of the Brown or Tawny Owl, the ulula of 



the ancients, most people consider melancholy, but Shakespeare's 



song says : — 



Then nightly sings the stai-ing Owl 



To-who, 

 Tu-whit, tu-who, a merry note. 



— Love's Labour Lost, V., S. 



The Brown Owl, as it is called in Herefordshire, is more 

 abundant than any other species. It resides throughout the year, 

 and is to be found in all the wooded districts of the county, but 

 its numbers are certainly diminishmg, from persecutions of keepers 

 with their guns, and deadly pole traps. It rarely leaves its place 

 of concealment during the day, and is therefore seldom seen. . 



. . . . From yon ivy-mantled tower 

 The moping Owl does to the moon complain. 



Gray— Elegy. 



It is fond of thick woods, and the hollow trees of parks, in 

 which it builds. The young are singularly ugly lumps of grey 

 down, hissing and snorting when a strange hand approaches them, 

 and fiercely using their claws and beaks. Their mother, however, 

 speaking of them, in Lafontaine, to her friend the Eagle, calls them. 



. . . . Mes petits sont mignons, 



Beaux bien faits et jolis sur tous leurs compagnons. 



The Rev. Clement Ley once found a Starling's nest, and on two 

 occasions the nest of the Blue Tit, in the same hollow tree, with, 

 and in close proximity to, the young fiimily of the Tawny Owl, an 

 awful situation one would imagine for the little Tit in particular to 

 have selected. He would daily look down upon the headless 

 carcasses of small birds, including very probably some of his own 



