400 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



Shudder all the haunted roods, 

 All the eyeballs under hoods, 



Shroud you in their glare. 

 Enter these enchanted woods 

 You who dare.' 



The stackyard at night demands more daring. It re- 

 quires more than a little nerve to avoid a start, which would 

 quite spoil the game, when a great owl slipping unseen on 

 velvet wing from behind the stack gives a screech just over 

 your head as you stand glued against the stack or sit hidden 

 under loose straw. Every night of their lives, it seems likely, 

 the barndoor owls visit the stackyard. They usually wait till 

 it is quite dark, and are often anticipated by the little Spanish 

 owls, which come there soon after sundown, after they have 

 been hawking along the hedgerow. But now and again you 

 may find the great owls in the stack, apparently half asleep, 

 in the daytime. They will fly there for refuge. A curious 

 incident in the writer's garden illustrated this. One 

 bright summer day an owl was seen roosting in a crab-apple 

 tree, an unusual spot to select. But into the crab had grown 

 up a tall and very free-flowering spiraea. The owl was 

 perched right against the end of one of the long heads of 

 blossoms ; and it was quite difficult till you came within a 

 short distance to tell where the flower ended and the owl 

 began. The concealment was as near perfect as could be 

 so far as adaptation to colour was concerned. As soon as he 

 perceived himself discovered the owl flew straight off to a 

 strawstack quite close by, and disappeared altogether in some 

 loose straw. However at night the owls do not stay long : 

 they come and catch their mouse and go. It is supposed 

 that the shriek is uttered to startle the prey and make him 

 disclose his place by a sudden movement ; but it is a question 

 whether the theory is sound. Observation in the stackyard 

 does not support it. The whole place creaks and rustles 



