BIRDS BIRDS OF PREY DIAGRAM 4. <)7 



They live near buildings, and actively pursue field-mice and 



other small quadrupeds. A brown owl con readily take the 



place of a cat in a house and no more mice will be seen there. 



They also eat many insects which only 



fly by night. All these birds have an 



easily recognizable appearance ; their 



two large eyes are placed in front, 



instead of on each side of the head as 



in other birds. They have often tufts 



resembling ears on the head. Their ears 



are very large, as we have said, but it is 



necessary to part the plumage in order to 



see them. Owls, like many other animals, 



can see by night, and probably better 



than during the day, when they shun 



the light. They then hide in holes, and 



it is doubtless their habit of living in 



deserted places, such as cemeteries, which 



has led them to be regarded as birds of Hi-own Owl. 



ill omen. In truth, there is no animal which deserves to be so 



regarded. And it is also a gross error to suppose that the owls 



come to hoot over a house where a dying person is lying. If we 



hear of it sometimes, it is because the trouble that has come 



upon the house keeps everyone awake, and they hear the bird's 



hoot as they do every night, only on other nights everyone is 



asleep, and so nobody hears it. In former times, the owl, 



instead of being regarded as a bird of ill omen, was considered 



one of the wisest of animals ; and it deserves this reputatiDn as 



little as the other. 



