198 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



the dark and sleep all day is the barn-owl 

 or white owl, which certainly does look terribly 

 sleepy in the daytime ; but even this bird 

 can see quite well in the light. While this 

 book was being written I met a gentleman 

 who told me he had reared a barn-owl which 

 would follow him about in the daytime ; and 

 he used to take it away from home and let it 

 go and it would fly home like a pigeon, so that 

 it had no difficulty in finding its way about. 



The fact is, that owls stay at home, in holes 

 or thickly-foliaged trees, in the daytime, for 

 reasons of their own ; no doubt they are tired 

 after they have been sitting up all night to 

 hunt and feed, for they really can see well at 

 night and live their lives then as a matter of 

 course ; and then, if they are found out by 

 the other birds in the daytime, they get so 

 much bothered by the abuse and chattering 

 which is dinned into their ears that it is no 

 wonder that they hide as much as they can. 

 All other birds have a great dislike to owls ; 

 they do not see them very often, and evidently 

 think they are awful guys to look at, and they 

 know just enough about them to understand 

 that owls are suspicious characters, and likely 



