Their Eggs and Nests. 65 



eggs in instalments, as it were, and when the first 

 batch of two or three is about hatching or nearly so, 

 others are deposited in addition, an<l thus hatched in 

 their turn almost as much by thtir brothers and sisters 

 as by their mother. Quainter, graver, odder, stranger, 

 more irresistibly comic creatures than these young 

 Owls I never saw ; and the hissing and snoring, and 

 peering looks at the spectator, and strange antic con- 

 tortions I heard and saw, baliie all attempts at descrip- 

 tion. The entertainment, for such it was most truly, 

 usually began some little time before sunset, about 

 which time the old birds nii<dit be seen commencinfj 

 their labours of purveying food for Masters and Misses 

 llowlet. At intervals of from seven to ten minutes, 

 one or other of them came to the nest with a prey, 

 and I could always tell by the sounds and gestures of 

 the young Owls when the old one was approaching. 

 How they knew I could not tell ; it was not by sight, 

 and I could hear no sound myself; but know they did 

 most certainly. Mice, slugs, sometimes a large insect 

 apparently, or a small bird, very rarely a Mole, or Rat 

 of no large dimensions, were brought in continuous 

 succession, and in the claw, not with the bill. When 

 the animal was of small dimensions, the old Owl flitted 

 off again with scarcely any pause at the nest. If a 

 large one, it seemed by the time which elapsed, and 

 the sounds which became audible — most vehement 

 snorings and hissings — that partition had to be made, 

 and that the said partition was a matter of the greatest 

 interest to the parties concerned. I cannot affirm 

 positively that the old Owls prosecuted their most 

 successful hunting all through the night ; but I believe 



£ 



