BIRD LIFE AND BIRD LORE 



CHAPTER I 



OWLS 



THERE is no bird which, in view of its strange and 

 solitary character, its weird and hollow cries, the 

 grotesque solemnity of its appearance, the time- 

 honoured beliefs and superstitions which cluster 

 round it, the large part it has played in poetry, 

 ancient and modern, as well as in its sister arts, 

 sculpture anH painting, the marvellous adaptations of 

 its structure to its mode of life, or its mode of life to 

 its structure above all, perhaps I ought to add, in 

 these days of agricultural depression and of armies 

 of destroying rats and mice, its usefulness to the 

 struggling cultivator of the soil possesses so 

 peculiar a fascination, and ought to enjoy so jealous 

 and zealous a protection, as the various species of 

 the owl. 



