138 WILD NATURE IN STRATHEARN. 



As we retrace our steps homewards from 

 the field, after it has got so dark that the 

 pair of hunters cannot be seen, we are assailed 

 all round by the cries of those sitting in the 

 wood, and by placing our hands close together 

 and mimicking their cry we get them to 

 answer us. It is Tennyson who says : 



" I would mock thy chant anew ; 

 But I cannot mimic it ; 

 Not a whit of thy tuwho, 

 Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, 

 Thee to woo to thy tuwhit, 



With a lengthened loud haloo, 

 Tuwho, tuwhit, tuwhit, tuwho-o-o." 



Owls can be kept as pets. Their food con- 

 sists of mice, rats, small birds, or bits of butcher 

 meat. I kept one for some time, but I could not 

 say he was tame. He would ruffle his feathers 

 at my approach and hiss at me, just as a wild one 

 would do if you found him on his nest in the 

 wood. If taken young and reared from the nest 

 I believe they become very tame. In the fall of 



