22 OWLS 



caused her to divulge her secrets. To this day, it 

 is probable that the white owl owes its safety, in 

 some parts of England, to the belief that it has 

 something supernatural about it. Only last year, 

 in the little village of Thurlestone, in South Devon, 

 where owls are common and are carefully protected 

 in both barn and belfry, the rector, the Rev. Frank 

 Coope, an old pupil of my own, was explaining to 

 his Sunday-school children the clauses of the Te 

 Deum, when it occurred to him to ask, " What are 

 Cherubim ? " The answer promptly came back, 

 ' 'White owls, sir," and revealed a belief among his 

 parishioners of which he might otherwise have 

 remained ignorant. " What are Seraphim, then ? " 

 " Brown owls, sir." "What do you mean by 'To 

 Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry ? ' ' 

 "It means that the white owls are always screech- 

 ing, and the brown owls always hooting before God." 

 The belief is not confined to Thurlestone, or to the 

 present day ; for a book of Sporting Anecdotes, 

 published early in the last century, and still 

 preserved at Horsmonden Rectory, Kent, contains 

 a chapter entitled " Cherubim shooting." Two 

 Cockney sportsmen have succeeded in bringing 

 down a white owl, a bird they had never seen 

 before. It throws itself against a bank, and draw- 



