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 Titus 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." 



Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 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 Jive 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 



