THE GHOST OWL 119 



cob-nut, mouse-coloured, rough, and very light in the 

 hand ; it may contain enough bones to make up the 

 skeletons of three or four mice. Each pellet would 

 be the remains of what an owl would consider a good 

 evening meal ; so we can imagine the amount of 

 good work which white owls do in the world, each 

 pair killing thousands of mice in a season. Some 

 seven hundred pellets once were carefully examined, 

 and it was estimated that they contained the remains 

 of more than two thousand five hundred mice. 



Sometimes we see the ghostly form of a white owl 

 flying by day, but he never seems happy in daylight, 

 preferring to drowse time away until dusk falls, since 

 his peculiar eyes are fitted best for sight in semi- 

 darkness ; he is a night bird all over. The kestrel 

 lives on mice like the owl, but hunts by day ; and what 

 a difference this has made between the two hunters ! 

 The kestrel's feathers are smooth and close-lying, the 

 owl's are soft and fluffy ; the kestrel's wings are long 

 and pointed, the feathers hard, the owl's are broad 

 and round, not meant for swift rushes through the 

 air, but for gliding, silent flight. The kestrel is like 

 a feathered arrow, cutting the air ; the owl like a 

 drifting ball of fluff. The toes of the owl are feathered 

 as well as the legs, but from the soft feathering peer 

 the sharpest claws. The curious, long-drawn, heart- 

 shaped face seems made up of eyes ; by eye and ear, 

 tuned to catch the least sight or sound of rustling 

 mouse, the owl finds his prey where the kestrel in the 

 same dim light would see nothing, drifts up unseen 

 and unheard, and makes his unerring pounce. 



His voice and form seem to belong to another world 

 than that of our happy birds. 



