STRIGIDAE — OWLS. 181 



nearly a month before I lay two more, and a month after then other two, 

 so that I have twins three times, and the elder brothers and sisters help to 

 look after the youngest baby owls. I cannot tell you how much their 

 father and I love our little owls; all night we fly about looking for food for 

 them, and about every ten minutes come to the nursery carrying a mouse, 

 a beetle, or something nice for them to eat. 



" Sometimes when children pass old ruins at night, where we live, when 

 they hear us talking they think we are ghosts, and run away frightened ; 

 but you need never be afraid of your old friend, 



"A Barn Owl." 



Having now completed my stipulated " Order," the first 

 division of the land birds — the Raptorers (or tearers) — I now 

 begin to the second division, the Incessores (or perchers) — the 

 most comprehensive order of the five, embracing the Cantatores 

 (or songsters), the Deglubitores (or huskers), the Vagatores (or 

 wanderers), the Reptatoves (or creepers), the Scansores (or 

 climbers), the Excursores (or snatchers), the Volitatorcs (or 

 gliders), the Jaculatores (or darters), &c. But as it is difficult 

 to define exactly what birds do or do not sing, husk, wander, 

 creep, climb, snatch, glide, dart, &c, I think it better simply to 

 describe each bird, and let my readers class them for them- 

 selves. In fact, they might all be classed as birds or flyers, in 

 distinction to quadrupeds, reptiles, or fishes ; and, even then, it 

 were difficult to keep out the -bat, the beetle, or the flying fish. 



