Wood Owls.



of my Owl. I still watched and waited, hoping against hope for

the missing mate to come back, but in vain, so I got the three

trusting that one of them might take to my Owl and my poor

Owl to it, and turned them out into the vacant division that had

been wired off to tempt the deserter back. Its mate sat in

solitary state next door. The new comers proved to be two

different kinds of the Tawny Owl ; two very large, with darker

brown markings, the arrow-tips very clearly defined and the

w 7 hite conspicuous ; the third, a smaller Owl, had vellower-browu

plumage, and the markings were more blurred. They were all

very tame, and at once took to their new cage, the two sitting

together on a high perch and number three humbly taking a

seat below 7 .


They arrived in the afternoon, and were only half aw 7 ake,

while my Owl w 7 as fast asleep behind a yew stem. When it grew 7

dusk I w 7 ent to them again. My owl seemed unconscious of their

presence, stayed where it w r as and blinked. All four might have

been Eastern Potentates from their complete imperturbability.

For days they never looked at my Owl, nor it at them, nor did

either seem aw 7 are of the presence of the other. This w 7 ent on

for some time, the new comers gently calling at night and my

Ow 7 l hooting as usual. So I transferred the large pair into an

aviary in another part of the garden, and removed the w 7 ire

partition, letting number three and my Owl meet.


They took no notice of each other, one sitting on a tree, the

other on a perch, nor did they manifest either pleasure or anger.

After a few days they w 7 ere sitting on the same perch and now 7

they roost close together. The other day as I w 7 alked up to their

aviary in the dusk, another Owl softly fluttered off the top of it,

and sailed up into a sycamore tree. Was this the lost mate?

And if so? — I dare not think of its w 7 ounded and outraged

feelings, though in one w 7 ay, it has only 7 itself to blame.


The large Ow 7 ls have different tastes, for one sits out on a

bough in the sun, while the other remains in a dark corner

behind an old w 7 alnut trunk. Very seldom both are out in the

day. Their cage abuts on the stable wall, and mice and rats

abound, the latter in old runs. But now any young rats seen in

the cage speedily disappear, and the supplies of mice diminish.



