156 BRITISH BIRDS. 



easily distinguished from the Barn-Owl by its note. The latter bird 

 utters a harsh shrill screech ; but the present species hoots a loud and clear 

 hoo-hoo-hoo, or perhaps, more accurately, o, 6, 6. Singularly startling and 

 weird-like is this note of the Tawny Owl, especially when it is accompanied 

 by the darkness and the silence of the forest. 



The Owls, as a rule, are only active at nightfall; consequently their 

 habits are but little known. The Tawny Owl only invites you to observe 

 its actions when the sun has sunk behind the horizon and the landscape 

 is enshrouded in gloom. Guided by its loud and clear hooting cry, you 

 may know its whereabouts; and a dissection of the pellets it ejects will 

 tell you of what its food consists. Even in the forest at nightfall 

 there is much to interest and instruct. Numberless strange sounds greet 

 the ear, and inform you that nocturnal creatures are abroad. Now the 

 rustle of the bracken tells you that some truant stoat or weasel is on a 

 marauding expedition. The shrill squeal of the wood-mouse is heard as it 

 burrows under the withered leaves. The almost noiseless tread of the rat 

 or mole may startle you, or the purr of the Nightjar disturb your reverie, 

 or you may obtain a glimpse of the rabbits holding high carnival in the 

 open glades and drives. All these creatures are of nocturnal habits; and 

 many of them furnish the Tawny Owl with a meal. When the moon, 

 hitherto hid behind a dense mass of cloud, peeps forth, the shadows 

 suddenly lengthen, and the still forest assumes an almost daylight bright- 

 ness, you may hear the Owl's strange hooting note borne low and soft on 

 the night wind, and may perchance see the bird fly softly through the 

 air and alight on the dead top of an oak. At close quarters its hooting 

 cries startle by their depth of tone and clearness. If you are very well 

 concealed and scarcely breathe, you may see the bird ruffle up its plumage, 

 sit motionless for a second, and then launch into the air. Downwards it 

 seems to swoop ; for the gloom will not permit you to observe it closely, 

 and you can but conjecture that its bright eye, most piercing in the dark- 

 ness, has detected some mouse, mole, or frog, that falls a victim to the 

 noiseless approach of its enemy. But these creatures are not the TaAvny 

 Owl's only prey ; for it will take beetles and insects, and more rarely the 

 surface-feeding fish. Occasionally it will take a benighted bird from the 

 hedgerows, a Bunting, or a Whin chat, or other birds which are late in 

 seeking their roosting-place (a habit which frequently costs them their 

 life). 



The Tawny Owl does not escape the persecution of the game-preserver ; 

 but, although not entirely guiltless of the charge of poaching, its inroads 

 on the preserves are trifling, and usually confined to a feeble leveret or 

 young rabbit. In its habits the Tawny Owl is strictly nocturnal, and 

 rarely indeed leaves its place of concealment in the daytime unless 

 disturbed. Most Owls have a great aversion to the light, yet none more 



