OUR BIRDS OF PREY. 65 



ally known, though he is sometimes spoken of as the Brown, 

 sometimes as the Wood Owl. No owl is better known than he 

 to those who move about at night, because he is the only owl 

 that hoots. This hooting one of the most marvellous and most 

 beautiful of bird-voices is in many districts a sound of awe to 



BARN OWL. 



the country folk, who connect the Tawny Owl with certain 

 superstitions, so that it is " bad luck " to kill the bird. Prejudice, 

 sad to say, has defeated superstition in the case of the game- 

 keeper, who, left to his own devices by an ignorant or indifferent 

 employer, takes this bird in his villainous pole-traps. The average 



K 



