80 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
The following is a newspaper cutting. The species is not 
mentioned, but I have read of a Tawny Owl (Strix stridula, 
Lin.) giving a man who ventured to meddle with its young 
such a box on the ears that his face was lacerated, and it 
might have easily cost him an eye; but I cannot credit an 
Owl taking vengeance for her ravished offspring four days 
after their abduction :— 
“The Avranchin states that in a Commune, near Avranches (in 
Normandie), an Owl has taken terrible vengeance for the loss of 
her young, which had been killed by a farmer’s lad. For four days 
the Owl was on the watch, and on the fifth, upon the boy leaving 
the farm-house, the injured bird, which had been perched upon a 
tree, pounced down upon him, and with one stroke of its claws tore 
out his left eye, the sight of which is permanently destroyed.” 
On the 27th I drove by way of Thionville to Longwy 
with Mr. S. James Capper, who has given a lengthy but 
very graphic account of our ride and its results in his 
“Wanderings in Wartime.” It was a long way. About 
two o'clock in the afternoon of the second day I caught 
sight of our destination, and joyfully exclaimed, “There is 
Longwy!” “No,” said my companion, “it is a ruin.” We 
were both right. Longwy it was, and as utter a ruin as 
modern artillery could make it. This celebrated fortress, 
built by the great Vauban, had capitulated two days before 
at 10 a.m., and was now the disastrous chaos which we saw, 
Sixty out of its 300 houses were computed to be entirely 
destroyed, and most of the rest were much battered. Of 
course the petroleum had set some on fire. A few of them 
were not yet extinguished: I even saw one in flames, All 
the public buildings—the cavalry barracks, the artillery 
caserne, the hospital, the church, etc, were more or less 
destroyed. The main thoroughfares were blocked with debris 
of stones, slates, laths, and rafters; and every street was 
besprinkled with hundreds of fragments of bombs of all 
shapes and sizes. We had come away from Metz directly 
