byl THE TAWNY OWL. 
gular mode of procuring food, contrasted with its 
anatomy, causes astonishment in the beholder, and 
cannot fail to convince him that modern ornitholo- 
gists were ignorant of the true nature of the king- 
fisher when they rashly removed it from its old as- 
sociates, and assigned it a place amongst strangers, 
whose formation differs so widely from its own. 
NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE TAWNY 
OWL. 
Or all our British owls, this is by far the greatest 
favourite with me, and I take great interest in its 
preservation. 
Whilst temperance societies are rising up in all 
directions to warn the thirsty sinner that gin and 
godliness are not in unison, I could wish that some 
benevolent person would instruct the ignorant on 
the true nature and. habits of many poor dumb 
animals, which undergo a perpetual persecution, 
under the erroneous idea that they are inimical to 
the interests of man. I would willingly go twenty 
miles on foot, over the flintiest road, to hear some 
patroness of infant schools tell her little pupils that, 
nowadays, there are no old women who ride through 
the air on broomsticks, with a black cat in their 
laps ; that ravens, owls, and magpies have long since 
dropped all dealing with people in the other world ; 
and that hedgehogs are clearly proved never to have 
sucked a cow; though our silly farmers, almost to a 
man, would fain persuade us that these little harm- 
