238 Poachers and Poaching. 



make. How soft is the plumage of the owl, 

 and how noiseless her flight ! Watch her as she 

 floats past the ivy tod, down by the ricks, and 

 silently over the old wood. Then away over 

 the meadows, through the open door and out 

 of the loop-hole in the barn, round the lichened 

 tower, along the course of the brook. Presently 

 she returns to her four downy young, with a 

 mouse in one claw and a vole in the other, soon 

 to be ripped up, torn, and eaten by the greedy 

 snapping imps. The young are produced from 

 April to December, and not unfrequently both 

 young and eggs are found in the same nest. 

 If you would see the mid- day siesta of the owls, 

 climb up into some hay-mow. There in an 

 angle of the beam you will see their owlships, 

 snoring and blinking wide their great round eyes. 

 Their duet is the most unearthly, ridiculous, 

 grave, like-nothing-else noise you ever heard. 

 Here they will stay all day, digesting the mice 

 with which they have largely gorged themselves, 

 until twilight, when they again issue forth on 

 their madcap revellings. This clever mouser, 

 then, this winged cat, has a strong claim to our 

 protection. So let not idle superstition further its 

 destruction. 



The keeper's indiscretions are fewer in fur than 

 in feather. His larder abounds in long-bodied 

 creatures of the weasel kind. Here is the richly- 

 coloured dark-brown fur of the pine-martin ; that 



