GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 3 



the brown, the long-eared, and the short-eared. 

 Nature varies indeed, but within strict limits ; and 

 what is true of the owl in the county of Dorset, is 

 true, with very slight modifications, of the owl in all 

 parts of England and, indeed, in all parts of the 

 world. 



All owls have much in common. The difference 

 in their appearance caused by the fact that some 

 of their number, as, for instance, the eagle, the 

 long-eared, and the short-eared owl, have little 

 tufts of feathers on the top of their heads, which 

 they can raise or depress at pleasure, and which 

 look like ears, or horns, or egrets is a merely 

 superficial difference. They are, each and all of 

 them, unlike all other birds. A child who has 

 never seen one except in a picture, and who knows, 

 perhaps, hardly any birds beyond the sparrow, the 

 robin, and the barndoor fowl, never fails instantly 

 to recognise an owl. An English child, perhaps I 

 ought rather to say ; for " the child is father of the 

 man ; " and a German child could hardly be expected 

 to recognise an owl at sight, if it be true, as the 

 story, told me by my friend Canon Ainger, goes, 

 that a German professor on a visit to England, 

 who had somehow succeeded in shooting an owl, 

 holding up his trophy in triumph, exclaimed, 



