COURAGE OF BROWN OWL 63 



feet from the ground, I felt a heavy blow in the 

 middle of my back, as though my companion 

 had thrown a clod of hard earth at me. Turning 

 round, I saw a brown owl fly back to his post in 

 an adjoining tree from whence he had made his 

 descent upon me. I continued my climb, and 

 the same attack was delivered with even greater 

 force, a second and a third time. In the hollow, 

 which at last I reached, I found the wife sitting in 

 as undisturbed repose above her young as the 

 pigeon which preserved Mohammed, in the cave 

 of Mount Hira, from his pursuers, and so made the 

 Hegira or " Flight " to be, for all time, the era of 

 chronology in the vast Mohammedan world ; and the 

 husband, having, as I suppose, sufficiently delivered 

 his soul by his three charges, and thinking that 

 there was nothing further to be done, and that no 

 harm was meant, now looked on as calmly as his 

 wife. 



You must be prepared, when you put your arm 

 down into what you fancy to be an owl's hole, some- 

 times for a disappointment, sometimes for a smart 

 rebuff. If a white owl happens to be "at home" 

 there, and throwing herself on her back, plants her 

 sharp claws firmly on your hand, you will never 

 forget it ; while, as regards disappointment, one 



