126 Night Birds. [cHAP. VIL 
was a frog: I saw it quite distinctly. He flew up to a tree 
behind the one against which I was leaning. I turned 
round a little, and looked up to see how the owl would 
proceed with his quarry—whether he would tear him in 
pieces, or gobble him up whole. In this, however, I was 
disappointed. Although I moved very quietly, the quick 
eye or ear of the owl detected me, and I was at once greet- 
ed with his hoolie-gool-oo-oo as loud as he could scream. I 
might have shot him; but my stock of powder and lead 
was very low, and I refrained. Besides, he soon put it 
out of my power by taking wing and flying off with his 
prey.” 
There were two other birds which Edward often observed 
prowling about in the twilight in search of food—namely, 
the kestrel and merlin. On one occasion he shot a speci- 
men of the latter, when it was so dark that he could scarce- 
ly see it. He did not know that it was a hawk. He 
thought it was a goat-sucker by its flight. Many of the 
birds of prey roamed about by night as well as by day. The 
harsh scream of the heron, the guack of the wild duck, the 
piping of the kittyneedy (common sandpiper), the birnbeck 
of the moor-fowl, the wail of the plover, the curlee of the 
curlew, and the boom of the snipe, were often heard at night, 
in the regions frequented by these birds. Then again, by 
the sea-side, he would hear by night the shrill piping of the 
redshank and ring-dotterel, and the pleck-pleck of the oys- 
ter-catcher, as they came down from their breeding-grounds 
to the shore, to feed or to hold their conclaves. 
The coot and water-hen sometimes get very noisy after 
sunset. The land-rail eraiks the whole night through, until 
some time after the sun rises. The partridge, too, either 
moves about or is on the alert during spring and summer, 
as may be known by its often-repeated twirr-twirr. “The 
only bird we have here,” says Edward, “‘ that attempts to 
give music at the dead hours of night is the sedge-warbler. 
It appears to be possessed of the gift of song during the 
