SPARROW-HAWK, MERLIN, KESTREL, AND OWL. 83 



Owl will be cross and snappisli all day, and 

 the young ones will be waking liim up and 

 crying for food long before sunset. And 

 ' what lungs that eldest boy has ! ' The very 

 remembrance makes him give a plaintive hoot. 

 He sees some little brown things. Perhaps he 

 has as much real corn-age as the man who ate 

 the first oyster. He takes one home and it is 

 pronounced excellent. Could not he just glide 

 out and get another ? He does, and day after 

 day until watched for and detected in the act. 

 Then the whole race are condemned ; but let 

 gentlemen give orders that owls are not to be 

 killed unless so detected, and let them take 

 steps to see that they have owls on their 

 property, and perhaps not half a dozen in all 

 England would be shot in a year. 



The owl is the very best mouse-destroyer 

 we have, and a most interesting object on a 

 summer eveninof. 



g2 



