90 IN THE WEALD 
lands, and its own owls to hunt over them. When 
the farms are a mile and a half or, in some parts, two 
miles apart, this owl question is very easily settled. 
The brown owls and the long-eared owls (the title of 
' long-eared ' being given them because some feathers 
stick up above the rest) float round the farms ; the 
long-eared species occasionally, the brown owl or 
wood-owl frequently. If he clutches a young rabbit, 
or, for that matter, a dozen, the farmer will have less 
of these to nibble at his crops ; but this does not 
take place so very often, for the simple reason that 
the doe-rabbit is a most watchful mother. Now 
and again one daring youngster does not heed 
mother's warning drum, and then the brown owl 
grips him. When he visits the farm, you must look 
for him not in the rick-yards, but where the brook- 
has been widened out into a shallow bay for the cattle 
to drink at. If you do see him, it will be because he 
is diving through the openings in the trees, or float- 
ing over the tree-tops. Rats and mice come out to 
drink at night, in fact they are night wanderers ; but 
it is not always a rat or mouse the owl is after. He 
wants 'a fish, and that fish is a trout. All drinking- 
places for cattle are very productive of insect-life. 
The trout know this, and make their way from under 
the bridge, over the shallows. You can hear them 
