Traitors on the Gibbet. 91 



Though numerous here, yet trap and gun have so 

 reduced the wood owls that you may listen half the 

 night by a cover and never hear the ' Who-hoo ' that 

 seems to demand your name. 



The barn owls are more liable to be shot, because 

 they are more conspicuous ; but, on the other hand, as 

 they oTten breed and reside away from covers, they 

 seem to escape. For months past one of these has 

 sailed by my window every evening uttering a hissing 

 ' skir-r-r.' Here, some were nailed with their backs to 

 the wall, that they might not hide their guilty faces. 



The delicate texture of the owl's feathers is very 

 remarkable : these birds remind me of a huge moth. 

 The owls were more showy than the hawks, though 

 it is commonly said that without sunlight there is no 

 colour as in the case of plants grown in darkness. 

 Yet the hawks are day birds, while the owls fly by 

 night. There came the sound of footsteps ; and I 

 retreated, casting one glance backward at the black 

 and white, the blue and brown colours that streaked 

 the wall, while the dull green weasels were in per- 

 petual shadow. By night the bats would flit round 

 and about that gloomy place. It would not do to 

 return by the same path, lest another keeper might 

 be coming up it ; so I stepped into the wood itself. 



To those who walk only in the roads, hawks and 



