68 OWLS 



bring a brown owl from a remote part of the wood 

 to a tree close at hand, where he can be picked off 

 in the moonlight ; and if that fails, there is still the 

 fatal pole- trap always ready. 



Cruelty is often ingenious. Dignity is the 

 natural butt of the vulgar, and the solemn appear- 

 ance of the brown owl " most potent, grave, and 

 reverend seigneur " that he is combined with his 

 queer habits and the beliefs which have been held 

 about him, has, in the course of centuries, given 

 him many strange experiences and brought him 

 into many awkward situations. There was a time 

 when kites were common in England, and performed, 

 when there were no drains, the useful office of 

 scavengers in our great cities. The romantic sport 

 of falconry was then at its best ; and when it was 

 desired to bring the lumbering kite, the quarry of 

 the falcon, within his view, it was the unlucky 

 brown owl which was made to act as a lure. A 

 fox's brush was tied to his legs ; he was made to 

 fly as best he could, and his uncouth appearance, 

 acting on the curiosity of the kite a very inquisitive 

 bird soon brought him within measurable distance 

 of his nobler foe. Italian bird-catchers, it is said, 

 tether a brown owl to the ground, or fix him on a 

 perch in an open space surrounded by bushes, and 



