OWLS AND OTHERS 



well hits off its shrill, threefold call-note " dacty- 

 lisonans," and another classical name, " Coturnix," also 

 suggests the sound of those pleasant notes of Spring. 

 They are neatly rendered by the phrase, " Whet-my- 

 lips." 



OWLS AND OTHERS 



THE white owl is armed at every point as a night- 

 hunter, with its great eyes, large ears, 

 Silent deadly talons, and soft feathers that make 



Wings its flight as buoyant as thistle-down. There 

 is no clapping of wings, no whirring. Man's 

 sensitive ears may possibly hear the beating of some 

 butterflies' wings ; but the white owl flies as silently as 

 a ghost. Even when it stoops to its prey it falls like a 

 fluttering rose-petal. The silent flight is considered to 

 be a provision of nature to prevent the mouse hearing ; 

 but it is as likely to provide against any noise which 

 would interfere with the owl's own hearing. 



THE dusk of an Autumn evening may find the barn-owl 

 on the wing, quartering a field, in a slow 

 Mobbing but in so certain a way that no mouse 

 the Owl could hope to escape, or working up and 

 down a hedgerow, missing nothing. The 

 brown owl hunting by daylight is a rarer sight, and one 

 most enraging to other birds. It is wonderful to see 

 how quickly a crowd gathers to mob the owl affer its 

 first mellow halloo has rung out. The ever-gallant 

 mistle-thrushes may be in the van of the attack, backed 

 by screaming blackbirds, and a scolding rout of tits and 

 finches , and they maintain an uproar even after the owl has 



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