ADDENDA 175 
somewhere. I searched everywhere, but could 
not find any one. Then on closer attention 
I traced the sounds to the turret of an old 
church close by, and found afterwards that 
they came from a barn owl that lived up there. 
(The young make a similar sound, which is 
their hunger cry, it is said.) Owls, as is well- 
known, feed on mice, rats and small birds, 
captured at night. Ted had a_ favourite 
singing skylark which he put out one night 
in its cage on the sill of the topmost window 
of the high old-fashioned house in which he 
lives. In the morning he found the poor 
bird dead and mangled. This must have been 
the work of an owl, and probably a brown 
owl, for we know where one lives and nests 
not very far away. It is in the stump of an 
old tree in a public park close by. I saw a 
barn owl one afternoon before it was dark, 
flying slowly (as they always do) over my 
garden at about twice the height of my 
house. Its slow flight, with body relatively 
short to the wings and the rounded ends of 
the wings told me at once it was an owl, and 
the greyish colour showed it to be a barn owl. 
