BIRDS BIRDS OF PREY DIAGRAM 4 67 



but for all that, they are friends rather than enemies to man. 

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

 other small quadrupeds. A brown owl can 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 recognisable 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 

 Brown Owl. h as i e & them to be regarded as birds of 



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 reputation as 

 little as the other. 



