264 TAWNY TWL. 



highest trees. It is not so shy as the Long-eared Owl, 

 allowing a very close approach when discovered in 

 its dormitory ; when roused, flying onward only for 

 a short distance in a low lazy flight, and in an ex- 

 tensive wood it will continue long to flit on before, 

 apparently unwilling to rise, until urged by the too 

 near approach of the intruder. It appears even 

 more sensitive to the light than the White Owl, 

 and Montague remarks, " and so defective is its 

 sight in a bright day, that it is no uncommon thing 

 for boys to hunt them down with sticks and 

 stones/'* During the flight in the day, and when 

 disturbed, it moves in silence, but at night it is 

 this bird which principally utters the peculiarly 

 modulated and toned "hootings," which are con- 

 verted into forebodings of evil ; this hooting is the 

 more peculiar call of the genus (ulula ;) and from 

 its melancholy and sometimes startling noise, has 

 led the superstition in all countries where they are 

 natives. The Barred Owl of America, for instance, 

 seems equally noted with its European congener 

 for this peculiar call. 



The Tawny Owl, as noted above, seeks its 

 breeding place in hollow trees, or the deserted 

 nests of the carrion-crow or magpie, sometimes in 

 the holes of rocks,t and Montague says sometimes 

 in barns. Little preparation for depositing the 



\Dictionary. f Hewitson. 



