44 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
invariably uttered by the white owl. I have watched 
both in various situations, and have often been startled 
in the woods by the unexpected shriek of the brown 
owl, while, by blowing into my closed hands, I have 
imitated a hoot with such exactness as to cause the 
white owl to approach me very closely. A pair of the 
latter frequented a small field opposite to my house in 
the village, and on moonlight nights I have repeatedly 
and distinctly watched them while uttering their hoot 
even within a few yards of the house. The result of my 
own careful and repeated observations may be thus 
summed up—that the white owl hoots chiefly, but 
sometimes, though very seldom, screams; while the 
tawny owl screeches, and rarely, if ever, hoots, 
The Tawny Owl (Ulula stridula), although not so 
common with us as the white, is still a plentiful species, 
our extensive woods favouring its arboreal habits. Its 
favourite hiding-places in the daytime are the thickly- 
clothed branches of the spruce and Scotch fir, especially 
the former. Itis not nearly so wary a bird as the barn 
owl, and if disturbed from its roost before the evening it 
is even more confused and blinded by the light ; but in 
the dusky twilight it is all activity, hunting on the out- 
skirts of the woods and plantations with noiseless flight, 
its tawny colour rendering it invisible in the dark 
shadows of the trees, and I have often been aware of 
its presence only by its unearthly cry as it glided past 
me. 
The venerable oaks, whose lichened trunks and limbs 
are rifted and decayed into innumerable cavities, are the 
places it generally selects in which to breed. In these 
its young are secure from all enemies except the pdlecat, 
and even he would hesitate ere he faced the sharp beak 
