THE OWLS 217 



tells how the Great Khan of Tartary was saved from death 

 by the presence of an Owl. He had hidden in a thick 

 wood from the pursuit of his enemies. 



"So it happened that as they went searching toward 

 the place where the emperor was, they saw an Owl sitting 

 upon a tree above him. Then said they amongst them, 

 that there was no man, because that they saw that bird 

 there, and so they went their way ; and thus escaped 

 the emperor from death. . . . And therefore principally 

 above all fowls of the world they worship the Owl ; and 

 when they have any of their feathers, they keep them 

 full preciously instead of relics, and bear them upon their 

 heads, and they hold themselves blessed and safe from 

 all perils while that they have them." 



There are many of us who, without any belief in the 

 value of Owls' feathers as charms, are yet very fond of the 

 queer brown bird and his strange far-reaching cry. 



There is little that is melancholy and very much that 

 is musical in the hoo-hoo hoo-hoo-hoo of the Wood Owl 

 when you hear it, as I have heard it, standing listening 

 among the heather, on the outskirts of the New Forest, 

 an hour after sun-down on an April evening, with a 

 thin crescent moon climbing above the slender birches 

 and the dark pines. 



Even in the suburbs of our great cities, that "merry 

 note," as Shakespeare calls it in one of his songs, may often 

 be heard. One of our present-day poets, Mr. Noyes, in 

 bidding us " come down to Kew in lilac time," promises us 

 not only the voices of lark and cuckoo, but also 



"After dark, the long halloo 

 And golden-eyed tu-whit tu-whoo 

 Of owls that ogle London." 



No one has, I think, found out the reason why the Owl 



