JUNE JOYS 141 



possession of such a prisoner is not the less incom- 

 patible with that love for animals so often attri- 

 buted to persons who hold many of them captive. 

 The naturalist often tries to pierce the mysteries of 

 animal life ; but how many have tried to lift the 

 veil from the miseries of their silent captives 

 who are waiting, motionless, silently, and oh ! so 

 patiently, for the nothingness of death ? 



Yet all these poor victims are possible friends ; 

 nay, the very wild ones themselves would be such, 

 would we but let them. 



An ornithologist bought a brown owl that had 

 been reared in a cage. He fed it up, tamed it, let 

 it out in his garden, and had it with him there or 

 elsewhere for years. It even preferred to stay 

 with him instead of going off with a mate, who 

 came from the woods to woo it. 



It was a sight of that bird in the twilight, de- 

 scending from upper darkness to settle near her 

 owner when he called, and the sound of her voice 

 in ready response to his, that first made me realise 

 how many opportunities of doing something of the 

 same kind with a pet bird had been lost. 



A few years later I was at a country house, and 



