AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



settled, while the little wren diligently sounds his watch- 

 man's rattle. The owl must regret wakinguptoo early. 



A REGULAR winter visitor is the short-eared owl, the 

 " grass-owl " of the falconers, that has a 

 Our marked habit of frequenting open fields, 



Winter and there hunts and roosts. It hunts by 

 Owl day as by night, and there is small hope for 



any prey it attacks, furred, feathered, or 

 scaly. The owls come to our east coast in small parties 

 about twenty strong, which presently disperse, but 

 before doing so are sometimes encountered, sitting in 

 the open fields, by partridge shooters. They are fond 

 of river meadows, such as are haunted by meadow - 

 pipits, whom they seem to regard as excellent morsels 

 off which to dine. 



THE short-eared, owl the " Woodcock Owl," which 

 comes in with the 'cock, and usually departs 

 Owls Like in the days of white violets, is among the 

 Cherubim long list of the foes of fieldmice and voles, 

 which includes, besides owls of all sorts, 

 buzzards, kestrels, and the small seagulls, foxes, stoats, 

 weasels, rooks, crows, great black-backed gulls, ravens 

 and adders. It is like the owl called " little " in that 

 it hunts by day. A haunter of moors and fenlands, it 

 squats close to the grass, and is sometimes flushed by 

 shooters among turnips. A humorous sporting picture 

 might be drawn from life the dogs standing at point, 

 and a surprised sportsman putting up, instead of the 

 expected covey, a number of short-eared owls, which 

 solemnly set sail, looking, in one sportsman's phrase, 

 like the cherubim of churchyard tombstones. 



136 



