VISION. _ 237 
Like the owl, indeed, its motions are much more 
agile and lively at nightfall and dawn than at any 
other time ; and so strong is this propensity to ac- 
tion at the rise or descent of the sun, that wood- 
cocks when kept in a room are observed to flutter 
about regularly every morning and evening, while 
during the day they only trip on the floor without 
attempting to fly. 
The stone-curlew (Cidicnemus crepitans, Tem- 
mincK) differs from the woodcock particularly in 
this, that though its eyes are similarly prominent, 
yet, if we may believe M. Montbeillard, its sight is 
very acute in the daytime, though he admits it can 
see best in the twilight. The prominence of its 
eyes enables it to see behind as well as before, and 
it is with difficulty, therefore, that it can be ap- 
proached. Paley justly remarks, that ‘ what is 
gained by the largeness or prominence of the globe 
of the eye is width in the field of vision.” 
With respect to owls, as well as most night- 
prowling animals, the eye is unquestionably very 
sensible. Of the barred owl (Siriz nebulosa, Gmr- 
Lin), Audubon says, its “‘ power of sight during the 
day seems to be rather of an equivocal character, 
as I once saw one alight on the back of a cow, 
which it left so suddenly afterward, when the cow 
moved, as to prove to me that it had mistaken the 
object on which it had perched for something else. 
At other times I have observed that the approach 
of the gray squirrel intimidated them, if one of 
these animals accidentally jumped on a branch close 
to them, although the owl destroys a number of 
them during twilight.” M. Vaillant mentions a 
similar circumstance which he more than once ob- 
served in different species of owls, if they chanced 
to be roused from their lurking-places by day, when, 
instead of pursuing small birds, which are their nat- 
ural prey, they fled from them in fear. 
Wilson says of the snowy owl (Siryz nyciea), that 
