OUR PETS. 6i 



sustained for any length of time, and always concluded 

 •with a few harsh, loud, and utterly unmusical bars of 

 his own proper pipe, shrieked out in an angry and 

 impatient manner intensely ludicrous, and just as if 

 he meant to say : " There ! Whatever you may think, 

 that's as good as yours any day." After a few minutes' 

 rest and a little refreshment of water, he would begin 

 again, and repeat the same performance. 



Several times we had amongst our pets a Snowy owl. 

 This magnificent and rare bird does not seem now to 

 breed in Shetland, though there is reason to believe it 

 did at one time. Our pets of this species were, there- 

 fore, adults which had been slightly wounded, or caught 

 when asleep at the side of a stone on the hill-top. 

 They are certainly the most beautiful and handsome 

 of their kind ; but they do not make good pets. They 

 are too powerful and naturally fierce to make it safe to 

 allow them much liberty ; and possibly owing to their 

 not having been tamed from the nest, they never got 

 reconciled to confinement and restraint. They always 

 recognised the person who usually fed them, and showed, 

 in a certain uncouth way, that they were not ungrateful 

 for the rabbits, mice, starlings, buntings, and the like 

 fare with which they were liberally supplied ; but on 

 the whole, we found them sulky, fierce, and untractable ; 

 and they showed very little intelligence, justifying the 

 phrase which describes a man who is dull of appre- 

 hension to be as " stupid as an owl." 



We had a splendid Peregrine falcon once, and he 

 had no lack of the brightest intelligence. He was my 



