DOVE DALE REVISITED 147 



piercing shriek. The brown or tawny owl is 

 the one whose " most musical, most melan- 

 choly " tu-who-oo we heard in the woods. The 

 following lines from Tennyson are quoted by 

 Mr. Smith : 



" I would mock thy chant anew ; 



But I cannot mimic it ; 

 Not a whit of thy tu-whoo, 

 Thee to woo to thy tu-whit, 

 Thee to woo to thy tu-whit, 

 With a lengthen'd loud halloo, 

 Tu-whoo, tu-whit, tu-whit, tu-whoo-o-o." 



Mr. Smith plainly shows in his charming essay 

 that these three kinds of owls, all of which 

 are most destructive of rats and mice, are 

 wholly innocent of the crimes of which all 

 gamekeepers accuse them. He concludes by 

 a strong appeal for their strict preservation. 



Meanwhile, during our absence, the Master 

 had gone forth to fish in the lower waters of the 

 Dove, down Okeover way, and there met with 

 adventure after adventure, piled on each other 

 like Ossa upon Pelion. I cannot remember 

 them all, but I think his first loss was his pipe, 

 then his tobacco pouch, and then he lost his 

 lunch, a packet of sandwiches, which fell into 



