AVES—OWL. A71 
once more supplies them with a better plan of the country But it too often 
happens, that, with all their precaution to conceal themselves, they are spied 
out by the other birds of the place, and are sure to receive no mercy. The 
blackbird, the thrush, the jay, the bunting, and the redbreast, all come in 
file, and employ their little arts of insult and abuse. The smallest, the 
feeblest, and the most contemptible of this unfortunate bird’s enemies, are 
then the foremost to injure and torment him. ‘They increase their cries and 
turbulence round him, flap him with their wings, and are ready to show tl:eir 
courage to be great, as they are sensible that their danger is but small, 
The unfortunate owl, not knowing where to attack, or whither 1o fly, 
patiently sits and suffers all their insults. Astonished and dizzy, he only 
replies to their mockeries by awkward and ridiculous gestures, by turning 
his head, and rolling his eyes with an air of stupidity. It is enough that an 
owl appears by day to set the whole grove into a kind of an uproar. Either 
the aversion all the small birds have to this animal, or the consciousness of 
their own security, makes them pursue him without ceasing, while they 
encourage each other by their mutual cries to lend assistance in their lauda- 
ble undertaking. 
It sometimes happens, however, that the little birds pursue their insults 
with the same imprudent zeal with which the owl himself had pursued his 
depredations. They hunt him the whole day until evening returns ; which 
restoring him his faculties of sight once more, he makes the foremost of his 
pursuers pay dear for their former sport ; nor is man always an unconcerned 
spectator here. The bird catchers have got an art of counterfeiting the cry 
of an owl exactly; and, having before limed the branches of a hedge, they 
sit unseen, and give the call. At this, all the little birds flock to the place 
where they expect to find their well known enemy; but, instead of finding 
their stupid antagonist, they are stuck fast to the hedge themselves. This 
sport must be put in practice an hour before nightfall, in order to be success- 
ful; for if it is put off till later, those birds which but a few minutes sooner 
came to provoke their enemy, will then fly from him with as much terror as 
they just before showed insolence. 
It is not unpleasant to see one stupid bird made in some sort a decoy to 
deceive another. The great horned owl is sometimes made use of for this 
purpose, to lure the kite, when the falconer desires to catch him for the 
purpose of training the falcon. Upon this occasion, they clap the tail of a 
fox to the great owl, to render his figure extraordinary; in which trim he 
sails slowly along, flying low, which is his usual manner. The kite, either 
eurious o observe this odd kind of animal, or perhaps inquisitive to sez 
whether it may not be proper for food, flies alter, and comes nearer an® 
nearer. In this manner he continues to hover, and sometimes to descend, 
till the falconer, setting a strong winged hawk against him, seizes him fi: 
the purnose of training his young ones at home. 
