94 ITS RETIRING HABITS. 



the dove-cot, we should see the pigeons in commotion as 

 soon as it begins its evening flight, but the pigeons heed 

 it not ; whereas if the sparrowhawk or hobby should 

 make its appearance, the whole community would be up 

 at once proof sufficient that the barn owl is not looked 

 upon as a bad or even a suspicious character by the 

 inhabitants of the dove-cot." 



Its habit of breeding in retired situations is alluded to 

 in Titus Andronicns, Act ii. Sc. 3 : 



" Here never shines the sun ; here nothing breeds, 

 Unless the nightly owl." 



And Shakespeare has truly characterized the appearance 

 of this bird on the wing, when he speaks of 



" The night-owl's lazy flight." 



Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. i. 



Why the owl has been called the " bird of wisdom " it 

 is not easy to determine. Possibly because it can see in 

 the dark, and is the only bird which looks straightforward. 

 Shakespeare frequently alludes to its " five wits," and the 

 readers of Tennyson's poems will no doubt remember the 

 lines : 



" Alone, and warming \nsfive wits, 

 The white owl in the belfry sits." 



With our early writers the five senses appear to have 

 been generally called the "five wits." Chaucer, in the 



