an enormous mouth, armed on either side with long bristles, it 
feeds onlv on moths and beetles. 
If you are fortunate, your vigil in the gloaming may be re- 
warded by a sight of yet other night-birds. Out of some hollow 
tree, or swooping round the barn, may come a ghostly form, 
borne on absolutely silent wings: but with a reeling, bouyant 
flight, which is unmistakable—this is the barn owl. If you are 
very fortunate, you may hear its blood-curdling screech. Once 
heard you will never forget it! His cousin, the tawny owl, it is 
whose musical, if doleful “ hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-o ” has so commonly 
as ** to-whit-tu-woo.” 
been misrepresented by poets—and others 
Its flight is slower and its wings rounder than in the barn owl, 
and furthermore, it lacks the glistening satin-white underparts 
of that bird. But its coloration and general appearance are well- 
shown in the coloured illustration. 
The other species of owls we may reckon as fairly common 
residents with us. They are the long and the short-eared owls. 
But they are very rarely to be seen on the wing in daylight. Each 
has the habit, when excited, of bringing the wings together 
smartly over the back, so as to produce a sound likened by some 
to the word “ bock.” 
Few birds have figured so largely in our literature, perhaps, 
as the cuckoo. Though heard by all, he is seen by few: and this 
because so many people fail to recognize the charming wastrel 
go 
