284. THE CIVETTA, OR LITTLE ITALIAN OWL. 



take it. Would he accept my watch worth forty guineas, in pledge, 

 till my bill should be honoured ? No. He looked at me, and then 

 at the letters, and then at me again ; and said there was something 

 equivocal in the one from Prince Torlonia's bank. He would not 

 advance me a single sous. On making my retiring bow, I told him 

 that, as I was in the habit of writing occasionally on natural history, 

 I would make honourable mention of his great liberality in my next 

 publication, and that, in the meantime, I would send Torlonia a full 

 account of our interview. I should have stuck fast for money in 

 Basle, had not Lord Brougham's brother (William Brougham, Esq.) 

 luckily arrived in the town that very day. He immediately advanced 

 me an ample supply. All went well after this, until we reached 

 Aix-la-Chapelle. Here, an act of rashness on my part caused a 

 serious diminution in the family. A long journey and wet weather 

 had tended to soil the plumage of the little owls, and I deemed it 

 necessary that they, as well as their master, should have the benefit 

 of a warm bath. Five of them died of cold the same night. A sixth 

 got its thigh broke, I don't know how ; and a seventh breathed its 

 last, without any previous symptoms of indisposition, about a fort- 

 night after we had arrived at Walton Hall. 



The remaining five have surmounted all casualties, having been 

 well taken care of for eight months. On the loth of May, in the 

 year of our Lord 1842, there being abundance of snails, slugs, and 

 beetles on the ground, I released them from their long confinement. 

 Just opposite to the flower-garden, there is a dense plantation of 

 spruce fir trees. Under these, at intervals, by way of greater security, 

 I placed the separated parts of two dozen newly -killed rabbits, as a 

 temporary supply of food ; and at seven o'clock in the evening, the 

 weather being serene and warm, I opened the door of the cage. 

 The five owls stepped out to try their fortunes in this wicked world. 

 As they retired into the adjacent thicket, I bade them be of good 

 heart ; and although the whole world was now open to them, " where 

 to choose their place of residence," I said, if they would stop in my 

 park I would be glad of their company, and would always be a friend 

 and benefactor to them. 



