200 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



still very common in her favourite city of 

 Athens ; and this must also have been so in 

 ancient times, because the Greeks used to have 

 a proverb about " taking owls to Athens," 

 just as we say " sending coals to Newcastle." 

 Little owls come out in the afternoon, so that 

 it is quite easy to see them and watch their 

 habits. In India there is a small owl almost 

 exactly like this kind, and from watching its 

 ways I learned how it was that owls have to 

 stay at home in the day. In India the crows 

 hang mostly about the big towns, and are not 

 so common in the country, and so one finds 

 that in Calcutta, for instance, the owls do not 

 come out till the crows have gone to bed ; 

 indeed, I have seen a crow on his way home 

 to roost make a swoop at an owl which had 

 come out a little too soon, no doubt being in a 

 hurry for supper. But in country places the 

 same small owls might be seen at tea-time, 

 as they had matters there more their own 

 way. 



When you get a chance of watching an owl 

 in the dusk, you will notice that he blinks 

 and screws his head about and bobs it up and 

 down just as much as he does in the daytime ; 



