O WLS 83 



Hies with extraordinary swiftness, gliding through the air for miles without a 

 visible movement of the wings. It slips through foliage with wings held closely 

 together, and generally flies close to the ground ; while it will turn any corner with 

 wonderful quickness, and surprise small birds at their feeding and roosting places 

 like a flash of lightning. When compelled, it will eat mice or insects, but it prefers 

 birds, from the size of a linnet to that of a pigeon, hunting and catching them in 

 the same way as the goshawk. Sparrows seem to be its favourite prey, for it 

 will follow them even into rooms. The female can kill and carry off pigeons and 

 crows, although she is inferior in size ; and she has even been seen to attack 

 a heron. If the sparrow-hawk is not hungry, it flies with its pre}' in its 

 claws in graceful curves and circles, but never hovers. In perching it moves 

 its tail up and down like a wagtail, and draws its head in between its shoulders. 

 Sparrow-hawks do not all remain in central Europe to winter, most of them 

 going south in September and October, and returning in March and April. They 

 nest throughout Europe, north-west Africa, and the Canaries, as well as in Persia 

 and Asia Minor. Many sparrow-hawks winter in southern Europe, others cross 

 to Africa, where they are found as far south as Kordofan. 



All the owls have short, plump bodies, broad heads, scarcely to 

 Horned OwL ... ,. , , . 



be distinguished from the equally broad neck, and very large, staring 



eyes. Most of them have also a disc of radiating feathers round the eyes ; the 

 whole face being, in fact, taken up by the two large eyes and these discs, which 

 are often surrounded by several rows of very stiff feathers, bent at the tip. In 

 some species the whole face is surrounded by these feathers, but in others the} 7 

 occur only round the outer and lower part of the face, or round their ears : a few 

 are without them altogether. 



Owls are also distinguished by the flexibility of the fourth toe, which may 

 be turned backwards or forwards at will, or at least so much to the side that, 

 while clasping twigs, they are able to put two toes on one side and two on the 

 other, like parrots. The beak lies within the stiff feathers of the eye-discs, and 

 thereby seems shorter than is really the case. The body-plumage is beautifully 

 soft, and as the wing-feathers are also soft the flight is nearly noiseless. The 

 outer feathers of the upper wing-coverts have small hooks at their ends, with points 

 bent outwards, the object of which is not as yet known. The group comprises 

 about one hundred and fifty species, which are spread over all countries ; one of 

 them being peculiar to the Arctic regions. They are nearly all nocturnal, sleeping 

 during the day, and hunting at dusk and during the night. Their food consists 

 of small nocturnal rodents and shrew-mice, as well as of bats and sleeping birds and 

 mammals. Owls are guided by their acute sense of hearing more than by sight, 

 being able to hear the low cry of a mouse from a long distance ; and by the 

 imitation of such sounds they may be lured to destruction. It is an error to 

 suppose that owls can see only imperfectly or not at all by day, for not only are 

 there several species which hunt during daylight, but all of them can see approach- 

 ing danger by day as well as by night. They are therefore no less difficult to 

 catch than ordinary birds, and, when frightened in the daytime, fly through 

 foliage just as quickly as at night. Their eggs are pure white and usually almost 



