88 THE FERN-OWL. 



eggs with the greatest solicitude. If she has 

 reason to think they have been observed, she 

 has been known to change their situation, push- 

 ing them forward very dexterously with her wing 

 till she has conveyed them to a safe spot, and 

 sometimes even carrying them there in her bill. 

 Its manner of perching is peculiar, placing itself 

 longitudinally on the branch, which it seems to 

 tread in the manner of the domestic cock. When 

 in this situation, it is very difficult to discern it, 

 the colours of its plumage so nearly resembling 

 the bark of a tree, that it cannot be detected 

 without the closest scrutiny. It is when thus 

 placed, that it utters its peculiar cry, which is a 

 sort of croak; the sound it makes in flying is 

 quite different, but not less peculiar. This is 

 the humming, whirring noise, which some have 

 compared to a spinning-wheel, and which White 

 has described as resembling the ringing of casta- 

 nets : it is in its rapid, airy, excursive flight after 

 its prey, which it takes on the wing, that this 

 sound is produced. Some have supposed it to 

 be occasioned by the vast volume of air it en- 

 gulphs in its capacious throat, as it flies about 

 with its mouth open, while others consider it 

 merely a variety in its note. The accurate 

 White was of that opinion, as will be seen in the 

 following extracts from his correspondence with 



