i6 ON SURREY HILLS. 



road. More than once have I noted the captor 

 crouching over his quarry in the middle of the road. 

 As to owls — the grand feathered cats, and our 

 farmers' best friends — you may always find them 

 about the roadside, in summer or winter, if you know 

 their haunts. They generally hunt in couples, if 

 their young are out of the way for the season. There 

 was one country road down which I used to travel 

 regularly at one time in the evening, that had two 

 gates exactly opposite each other at one point of it, 

 leading from one lot of fields to another lot belonging 

 to the same farm. Oat and wheat stacks stood on 

 either side of both gates, just clear of them, only 

 allowing enough room for the waggons to pass in and 

 out. On each gate a white owl would perch regularly 

 evening after evening. I saw them there, watching 

 for the rats and mice that ran across the road from 

 one lot of stacks to the other. What these two missed 

 would hardly have furnished a meal for a shrike. 

 Any owl on the hunt is as lively as a falcon, and 

 quite as eager, although in a different fashion. I have 

 frequently heard a pair of them just over my head 

 as I walked along. On looking up I could see them 

 just above me, hissing and snoring in the most 



