XVII 



OWLS 



" Then nightly sings the staring-owl, 



Tu-whit ; 

 Tu-who, a merry note." 



Love's Labour Lost. 



" Disquiet yourself not ; 

 'Tis nothing but a little downy owl." 



SHELLEY. 



"The cue-owls speak the name we call them by." 



BROWNING. 



OWLS are constantly in evidence in an Indian garden. 

 Each dawn and dusk is heralded by the noisy chat- 

 tering of the little spotted owlets, Athene brama; 

 during a great part of the year the mild note of the 

 scops-owl sounds out of the darkness of every quiet 

 night wherever trees abound ; and at intervals one is 

 startled by the sudden shrieking outcry of barn-owls 

 as they hawk about over the lawns and other open 

 spaces. With an experience limited to the British 

 Islands, where at best owls of any kind are relatively 

 rare, it would be hard to imagine that any of them 



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