BIRDS OF THE NIGHT 195 



hooting. When a Brown Owl hoots, its throat 

 swells up until it is inflated to the size of an egg, 

 which fact that great observer Gilbert White 

 pointed out many years ago, saying, " When 

 brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as a 

 hen's egg." x 



Heard thrilling through the silence of the night, 

 what an awe-inspiring sound the hoot is, yet 

 by day it is scarcely noticeable, and few people 

 seem aware that owls often hoot at mid-day. 

 I have heard them calling to one another on 

 a warm and sunshiny morning, exactly the bright 

 and cheerful time when popular imagination 

 would say they were hidden away, and particu- 

 larly remember one blazing day in early June ; 

 it was beside a little stream, in which I was 

 supposed to be fishing, but it was far too hot 

 for a fish to be moving indeed, there was not 

 a trout rising and the only thing to be done was 

 to sit down under the nut bushes and watch 

 the may-fly dancing in the air. There were few 

 sounds, save the babbling of the brook, to 

 break the stillness, when from somewhere in 

 the thick woods rang out the clear hoot of an 

 owl. Three times the bird called, when another 

 responded, after which they sank into silence 

 again. The fact is that the Tawny Owl is not 

 so strictly nocturnal as people imagine. Its 

 trade of mouse-catching makes the night its 

 chief time of activity, but it has no dislike of 

 daylight ; indeed, it loves a sun bath, and I have 



' Letter XV of the Natural History of Selborne. 



