272 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



see this bird in captivity. There is no reason, no 

 excuse to be made, for confining him ; he does not 

 sing and twitter, nor amuse his gaoler with lively 

 motions and brilliant colour. Beautiful to see when 

 flying at sunset about the village and farm where 

 he is not persecuted, and grotesque beyond description 

 when viewed by day in his dimly -lighted loft or tower, 

 rocking his body to and fro, now crouching cat-like, 

 then stretching himself up, and all the time making 

 strange weird faces at you, in a cage he is a most 

 pitiful spectacle, a depressed, dead-alive looking white 

 owl, no longer white, his beautiful plumage smirched 

 and disarranged. 



A robin redbreast in a cage 

 Puts all heaven in a rage, 



said Blake ; and a white owl in a cage must produce 

 the same effect, if we may indeed believe that un- 

 earthly eyes regard us, and see the fantastic tricks 

 which we play with our unhappy fellow-creatures. 



On one occasion only have I seen a caged owl 

 without disgust and anger ; this, oddly enough, was 

 in downland, and the reader if, or when, he is in that 

 part of the country, may see the bird for himself, and 

 admire it as I did. It was at Alfriston, the ancient 

 interesting village among the South Downs ; and the 

 bhd was not the white nor any British owl, but an 

 exceedingly fine specimen of the beautiful Cape Horned 

 Owl. It is owned by an old dame, Mrs. Bodle, who 



