OWL MOBBED BY SMALL BIRDS. 245 



July evening, when one sailed silently over a low 

 hedge, and, instantly checking its flight, flopped 

 into the long grass six or seven yards from where 

 I stood, and secured a mouse, which it took off 

 firmly grasped in one of its feet. I waited for 

 a quarter of an hour or so, to see if she would come 

 back to the same place, but she passed the orchard, 

 arid, going into some hayfields beyond it, soon 

 returned with another mouse, which she held in 

 her beak. 



I have, whilst trout-fishing in the North of 

 England, seen a Tawny Owl venture forth into a 

 dark ravine in the middle of the afternoon and 

 suffer a thorough mobbing by a crowd of small 

 birds as he sat winking and blinking on a 

 boulder. 



The Nightjar is another bird which sleeps by 

 day and roams along heathery hillside and over 

 furze-clad common by night in search of its prey. 

 It generally roosts upon the ground, and har- 

 monises so closely with its surroundings that it is 

 very difficult to detect until it has been flushed 

 right under its disturber's feet. Sometimes the 

 bird retires to rest on the branch of a tree or upon 

 a rail, and does this in quite a different way from 

 all other British birds. Instead of sitting across a 

 bough, it lies along it, and thus very materially 

 lessens its chances of discovery by the casual 

 passer-by. 



Some species retire much earlier to rest, and 

 rise much later in the morning, than others. In 

 the early spring Robins and Thrushes may generally 

 be heard rattling off their notes when nearly all 

 other birds have gone to rest, and on a fine 

 evening often when the stars are blinking over- 

 head. Grouse, Larks, and Wheatears, all rise so 



