106 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



not fly, but advantageous care withdrew me from the odds 

 of multitude," for he can see well enough in the daytime, 

 but is perfectly conscious of his unpopularity with other 

 birds. Moreover, Owls are prudent and far-seeing, even 

 to laying up a store of food against time of dearth ; not 

 that our local owlet has any need to do this, as he never 

 goes into cold climates. In America, however, the small 

 horned-owl (Scops asio) has been found gloating over a 

 store of fresh fish, which he had taken advantage of an 

 artificial opening in the ice to procure from a pond a mile 

 off ! That Owls should fish seems unnatural, somehow, 

 and yet we have more than one fishing species in India, 

 and the ordinary ' ' mousing owl ' ' of barn and steeple has 

 been known to turn piscator in England. 



The said Barn-owl (Strix flammea) is also found in 

 Calcutta, but is not nearly so conspicuous as the little 

 spotted bird, and is comparatively seldom seen, owing, no 

 doubt, to his more nocturnal habits. Now and then one may 

 see the big broad-winged bird flapping steadily and silently 

 over the compound, or plunging into a bush to raid the 

 roosting sparrows, for this Owl is one of the enemies of 

 those pestilential finches, although his more ordinary diet 

 consists of "rats and mice and such small deer." For the 

 capture of these he is eminently adapted ; his dark eyes 

 look out from a most perfectly-formed " facial disk," 

 that radiating arrangement of feathers so beautifully 

 contrived to concentrate the light though the immediate 

 effect of the Barn-owl's heart-shaped countenance on most 

 people is to make them compare him to a monkey ; his 

 wings are longer than in other Owls, to sustain him in his 



