STRIX FLAMMEA 23 



human habitations than the Barn Owl, and none so entirely 

 serves the interests of man ; yet, until recently, owing to super- 

 stition and ignorant prejudice, it has met with only persecution 

 in return. Even at the present day, it is far from receiving that 

 recognition which is its just and wise due. 



Common as this Owl is, and with all the personality it 

 possesses, few people attain to any intimate knowledge of its 

 habits, because, as a bird of the night, its ways are not 

 ordinarily apparent to creatures of the day. 



Many as have written on its life history, very few have done 

 so otherwise than in general terms. Of all authorities, the 

 earliest are the best. None equals Charles Waterton, not only 

 in point of original observation, but in pathetic appeal to 

 humanity on this bird's behalf, backed by all the force of 

 character of this man of tremendous personality. 



" I own I have a great liking for this bird," Waterton writes 

 in his Essays ; " and I have offered it hospitality and protection 

 on account of its persecutions, and for its many services to me. 

 I wish that any little thing I could write or say might cause it 

 to stand better with the world at large than it has hitherto 

 done." 



Returning from his wanderings in other lands in 1813, 

 taught by all he had himself gone through to have a kindly 

 heart for God's creatures, he describes the steps he took to 

 preserve this Owl, hitherto ruthlessly destroyed by his retainers 

 at Walton Hall. " Having suffered myself and learned mercy," as 

 he expresses it, " I broke in pieces the code of penal laws which the 

 knavery of the gamekeeper and the lamentable ignorance of the 

 other servants had hitherto put in force, far too successfully, to 

 thin the numbers of this poor, harmless, unsuspecting tribe. On 

 the ruin of the old gateway, against which, tradition says, the waves 

 of the lake have dashed for the better part of a thousand years, 

 I made a place with stone and mortar, about four feet square, 

 and fixed a thick oaken stick firmly into it. Huge masses of 

 ivy now quite cover it. In about a month or so after it was 

 finished, a pair of Barn Owls came and took up their abode in it. 



