36 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



Nor lonely the bird, nor his ghastly mate : 



They are each unto each a pride 

 Thrice fonder, perhaps, since a strange dark fate 

 Hath rent them from all beside ! 



So when the night falls, and the dogs do howl, 

 Sing ho, for the reign of the horned owl ! 

 We know not alway who are kings by day, 

 But the king of the night is the bold brown owl. 



So sings Barry Cornwall, and his spirited lines are very 

 characteristic. 



If the constant destruction of the hawk tribe is a 

 matter of regret to the true naturalist, it is doubly to be 

 lamented that the owls are visited with such indiscri- 

 minating and ignorant hostility. I will venture to 

 affirm that the good they effect is tenfold, ay, fifty-fold, 

 greater than the injury inflicted by the occasional 

 poaching of a young rabbit or partridge, and earnestly 

 would I raise my voice in their defence, and urge on their 

 destroyers that, even from the lowest and most unworthy 

 motive that of self-interest their preservation is de- 

 sirable. 



Bishop Stanley says with great truth : " Generally 

 speaking, a more useful race of birds does not exist, 

 since, with the exception of one or two of the larger and 

 rarer species, their food consists entirely of vermin and 

 insects very prejudicial to our crops, and which, but for 

 these nocturnal hunters, might do serious mischief. A 

 striking instance of their utility occurred some years ago 

 in the neighbourhood of Bridge water, in Somersetshire, 

 where, during the summer, such incredible numbers of 

 mice overran the country as to destroy a large portion of 

 vegetation, and their ravages might have extended to an 

 alarming degree had it not been for a sudden assemblage 

 of owls, which resorted from all parts to prey upon 



