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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