48 OWLS 



that her young are in danger, luring him onward, 

 with all the skill of a partridge or a wild duck 

 with her make-believe of a broken wing, and 

 even more fearlessly than does the timid peewit, 

 and, sometimes, attacking an animal much bigger 

 than herself, as an anecdote told me by Lord 

 Peel will show. He was walking, one evening, at 

 Sandy, in the heather on the outskirts of a fir 

 wood, in which there had been a shooting party 

 earlier in the day. He heard the screaming of 

 a hare one of the most painful cries, as all 

 humane sportsmen feel, in Nature and turning 

 round, he saw her coming towards him. Her 

 screams redoubled as she drew nearer ; and he 

 then observed that three or four short - eared 

 owls were pursuing her and darting at her head, 

 which was stained with blood. Each time they 

 swooped, the hare screamed afresh ; but when she 

 was only a few feet distant, the owls catching 

 sight of their observer, made off, while the hare 

 passing quite close to him, took refuge in the 

 thicker fern growth, and pursuers and pursued 

 were seen by him no more. " My impression 

 was and is," writes Lord Peel, " that the hare 

 had been wounded by shot, and that the short- 

 eared owls were attracted by her condition and 



