BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



these birds should not merely displease, but 

 actually alarm, so many people unaccustomed 

 to such sounds of the gloaming and darkness 

 it would be difficult to say ; but the voice of 

 owls may possibly owe some of its disturbing 

 effect to contrast with their silent flight, 

 which, thanks to their fluffy plumage, with 

 its broad quills and long barbs, prevents their 

 making much more noise than ghosts when 

 hunting rats and mice in moonlit fields. Only 

 one other English bird has so quiet a flight, 

 and that is the nightjar, another creature of 

 the darkness, which, though no cousin to 

 these nocturnal birds of prey, is known in 

 some parts of the country as the " fern-owl." 

 Visitors unprepared for the eerie woodland 

 music of these autumn nights shudder when 

 they hear the cry of the owl, as if it suggested 

 midnight crime. For myself I have more 

 agreeable associations, since I never hear 

 one of these birds without recalling a gallant 

 fight I once had with a big Tweed salmon in 

 the weak light of a young moon, while three 

 owls hooted amid the ghostly ruins of Norham 

 Castle. Yet, even apart from this wholly 

 agreeable memory, I find nothing unpleasant 

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