OWLS. 283 



borrowed information. The Little Owl, I have been told, 

 occasionally builds near Oxford, but this Lilliputian is quite 

 as scarce as his Brobdignag kin. By our British owls, 

 then, I mean the Tawny or Ivy Owl, the White or Barn 

 Owl, the Long-eared and Short-eared Owls. 



Ever since the old tower of my ancestors has been in 

 ruins, a pair of tawny owls have made their habitation 

 there. When a boy, I never failed to search out their 

 nest, and sometimes tamed one of the young, which was 

 pretty sure to be decoyed away by the parents as soon as 

 it was able to fly. I often saw both father and mother 

 come to their young one in the dusk, sometimes with food 

 in their talons. These young owls were not at all parti- 

 cular what they ate, and devoured greedily raw meat of 

 any kind, as well as fish ; bat I never saw them drink, and 

 when offered water, they showed as much dislike to it as a 

 cat. All day the young owl sat moping, with closed eyes, 

 hissing and snapping his bill if disturbed ; but, about 

 nightfall, his visage became full and staring, and so quick 

 was his sight, that I have only been made aware, by the 

 animation of his solemn face, that the indistinct shadow, 

 barely perceptible, was one of the old ones. 



A pair of white owls were equally constant to a small 

 cave among the precipitous rocks of Inch Tavannach, the 

 most picturesque of the thirty-three islands on Loch 

 Lomond. I have often climbed to this nest by no means 

 an easy task to watch the growth of the young. There 

 were sometimes four or five, whereas the brown owl had 

 seldom more than two or three. Every fine evening the 



