GILBERT WHITE 15 



Hanger, its Wolmer Pond and its Wolmer Forest 

 above all, the simple tombstone with the letters 

 " G. W." inscribed upon it to be a place of pilgrim- 

 age, aye, of almost religious pilgrimage to all lovers 

 of Nature for ever ! 



The eggs of the owl tribe, like those of the 

 pigeon, are always white ; but while no pigeon ever 

 lays more than two, the owl lays from four to six 

 eggs ; and while the eggs of the pigeon are bright 

 and glossy, those of the owl are a dull, chalky 

 white, so rough in texture that an experienced 

 bird's-nester can tell by feeling alone, before he sees 

 them, the nature of the prize he has reached at the 

 bottom of a hole. 



The names of animals which have a distinctive 

 cry are almost always onomatopoeic ; that is to say, 

 they imitate more or less successfully the cry. And 

 the cries of the owl, in its various species, are so 

 strange, and, heard as they generally are at dead of 

 night, they take such strong hold of the imagination, 

 that one might be sure beforehand that the bird 

 would receive, among various peoples, many apt or 

 sonorous names. Such names, to take only a few 

 from the vocabularies of widely scattered nations, 

 without distinguishing the species, are the CTKCO^ the 

 yXavg, the wKTiKopag (night-raven) of the Greeks ; 



