278 THE TA WNY OWL. 



THE TAWNY OWL 



OF all our British owls, this is by far the greatest favourite with me, 

 and I take great interest in its preservation. Whilst temperance 

 societies are rising up in all directions to warn the thirsty sinner 

 that gin and godliness are not in unison, I could wish that some 

 benevolent person would instruct the ignorant on the true nature 

 and habits of many poor dumb animals, which undergo a per- 

 petual persecution, under the erroneous idea that they are inimi- 

 cal to the interests of man. I would willingly go twenty miles 

 on foot, over the flintiest road, to hear some patroness of infant 

 schools teli her little pupils that, now-a-days, there are no old women 

 who ride through the air on broomsticks, with a black cat in their 

 laps ; that ravens, owls, and magpies have long since dropped all 

 dealing with people in the other world ; and that hedgehogs are 

 clearly proved never to have sucked a cow, though our silly farmers, 

 almost to a man, would fain persuade us that these little harmless 

 creatures are guilty of the preposterous act. Notwithstanding the 

 apprehensions of the dairymaid, I now and then venture to purchase 

 a captive hedgehog, and turn it into the park, there to live and die 

 in peace. It was but the other day that a neighbouring young lady 

 complained to me of an owl which had been hooting, for three or 

 four successive nights, far too near her bedroom windows, and she 

 wished indeed that it were shot. I startled as she uttered this, for 

 it instantly occurred to me that the bird of which she complained 

 might possibly be one which was bred here last summer, and that its 

 propensity to night-errantry had brought it into a scrape. So I tried 

 to persuade her that nothing but sheer curiosity could have induced 

 the owl to take the undue liberty of peeping in at her window ; and 

 I was sure that it could have seen nothing there to displease it. 

 I have never heard an owl, either in Europe or in America, that 

 utters sounds so nearly resembling the human voice, as those which 

 our tawny owl sends forth. Here, where all is still, and everything 

 to be found that is inviting to the feathered race, this bird will hoot 

 at intervals throughout the day, both in cloudy and in sunny weather. 

 Were you to pronounce the letter O in a loud and very clear tone of 



