204 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



ends, is less unsightly than a cask, and answers 

 the purpose equally well, only it must be large 

 enough. This arrangement is also less likely to 

 attract the attention of passers-by, if, the tree 

 selected for the purpose is perilously near a village 

 or public road. Waterton states that the number 

 of mice which these owls destroy is incredible. 

 The owls generally are handsome birds, but I am 

 inclined to think that the white owl excels them 

 all in this respect. It is, too, a bird which merits 

 all our care and preservation, making its home 

 close to our dwellings, as if trusting to us for the 

 protection which is its due in return for the good 

 service it renders to us. The person who is 

 capable of destroying one of these birds is truly 

 deserving of social excommunication. I have 

 been familiar with these owls from my childhood. 

 Adjoining the stables at my home there is an old 

 tower which, until it was repaired some few years 

 ago, was the favourite resort of these birds. In 

 the summer evenings they were to be seen 

 hawking about after mice and other similar 

 dainties, and at other times their snorings were so 

 loud as to be distinctly audible in the nursery, the 

 windows of which were but a very short distance 

 from the tower, and on a level with the battle- 

 ments. I have, therefore, every reason to feel 

 affection for these owls, if only because of their 

 connection with my very earliest recollection and 

 the happy days of childhood. 



The tawny owl, the largest of the four more 



