94 ITS RETIRING HABITS. 
the dove-cot, we should see the pigeons in commotion as 
soon as it begins its evening flight, but the pigeons heed 
it not; whereas if the sparrowhawk or hobby should 
make its appearance, the whole community would be up 
at once—proof sufficient that the barn owl is not looked 
upon as a bad or even a suspicious character by the 
inhabitants of the dove-cot.” 
Its habit of breeding in retired situations is alluded to 
in Zztus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3 :— 
“ Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds, 
Unless the nightly owl.” 
And Shakespeare has truly characterized the appearance 
of this bird on the wing, when he speaks of 
“ The night-owl’s lazy flight.” 
flenry VT. Part II. Act ii. Se: 1. 
Why the owl has been called the “bird of wisdom” it 
is not easy to determine. Possibly because it can see in 
the dark, and is the only bird which looks straightforward. 
Shakespeare frequently alludes to its “five wits,” and the 
readers of Tennyson’s poems will no doubt remember the 
lines :— 
“ Alone, and warming his five wits, 
The white owl in the belfry sits.” 
With our early writers the five senses appear to have 
been generally called the “five wits.” Chaucer, in the 
