288 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



love of seclusion alone that ser»ds him to the ivied belfry, 

 and he is quite as harmless as the Jackdaws who share 

 it with him ; only the one is abroad in daylight, and its 

 actions are not suspicious simply because they are ob- 

 servable, while the other's requirements send him forth 

 at a time when darkness hides his motions from view. 

 This alone is the primary cause why he is held to be a 

 bird of ill omen, as is also the poor, harmless, unoffending 

 Goatsucker. Could Minerva see her once favourite bird, 

 deeply grieved would she feel for its present hard and 

 sorrowful fate. Would that he haunted the meadows in 

 open day, his bitterest enemies would speedily become 

 his staunchest friends. 



As I previously stated, the Barn Owl is but rarely 

 seen in the daytime. He keeps in his gloomy haunt, in 

 company with the bats, until the sun has dipped behind 

 the western horizon, and the gloom of night is settling 

 fast around. It is then we see him quit his favourite 

 haunt, which is also invariably his nesting-place, and be- 

 take himself to the neighbouring fields and stack-yards. 

 When the moon shines brightly — although the presence 

 of this orb is in no way essential to his appearance, for he 

 is out on cloudy nights as well — you can gain some little 

 insight into the way he catches his prey. Often at even- 

 tide, when strolling under the branches of the stately 

 trees, enshrouded by their drooping branches, do I pause 

 for a few moments to watch the actions of this bird of 

 night. Silently he flits past me on almost noiseless wing, 

 and then, quick as thought, darts downwards, rising 

 again seemingly without effort. His piercing eye, most 

 powerful in the gloom, detects the mouse cowering low 

 amongst the herbage, which to me was invisible. Now 

 he visits the higher air, and his wild, weird-like shriek 

 marks out his wandering course. Now loud and shrill 



