HAWKS AND OWLS. 



37 



have most amusing tricks, and in time become compara- 

 tively tame, at least to the person who feeds them. The 

 beauty of the hawk's eye can hardly be surpassed : full, 

 liquid, and piercing. In this way the keeper's boy often 



OWLS IN EVERY BARN. 



gets a stray shilling ; also for young owls, which are still 

 kept in some country houses, in the sheds or barns, to 

 destroy the mice. When the corn was threshed with the 

 flail, and was consequently exposed to the ravages of these 

 creatures (if undisturbed they multiply in such numbers as 

 would scarcely be credited), owls were almost domestic 



