184 BIRDS AND MAN 



This sceptical fellow, it is hardly necessary to say, 

 was a young man who had spent a good deal of his 

 time away from the village. 



At Willersey, a Mr Andrews, a lover of birds who 

 owns a large garden and orchard in the village, gave 

 me an entertaining account of a pet wood owl he once 

 had. He had it as a young bird and never confined 

 it. As a rule it spent most of the daylight hours in 

 an apple loft, coming forth when the sun was low to 

 fly about the grounds until it found him, when it 

 would perch on his shoulder and spend the evening in 

 his company. In one thing this owl differed from 

 most pet birds which are allowed to have their liberty : 

 he made no difference between the people of the house 

 and those who were not of it ; he would fly on to any- 

 body's shoulder, although he only addressed his 

 hunger-cry to those who were accustomed to feed him. 

 As he roamed at will all over the place he became 

 well known to every one, and on account of his beauty 

 and perfect confidence he grew to be something of a 

 village pet. But short days with long, dark evenings 

 — and how dark they can be in a small, tree-shaded, 

 lampless village ! — wrought a change in the public 

 feeling about the owl. He was always abroad in the 

 evening, gliding about unseen in the darkness on 

 downy silent wings, and very suddenly dropping on 



