2140 Birds. 



close vicinity of their dwellings to that of Madame Cressuelle, nor did they ever at- 

 tempt to follow or mob her on her goings or comings. She, in her turn, never mo- 

 lested them, but always sailed straight off in the same direction, over the wood, in her 

 foraging expeditions. After the first day or two I never saw her mate ; and by-and- 

 bye murderous thoughts came into my head respecting the lady herself. The kestrel 

 that had started the original idea of merely furnishing an apartment, instead of build- 

 ing a house, acquired a wonderful interest in my eyes. I longed to handle and to 

 possess her. Her two pin-feathered representatives of the family would soon be in a 

 condition to represent it elsewhere, — and then good-bye to mamma! Besides, the 

 keepers (the pests!) would have her if I didn't: so my gun accompanied my next 

 watching. Need I tell the sanguinary sequel ? How 'twas a May evening, at sun- 

 down, that she dashed forth from her home for the last time ? and how a snap-shot 

 through the boughs was swifter than even her swift pinions, and stretched her lifeless 

 at my feet ? My cabinet is now her tomb. — Arthur Evans. 



Apparent Instance of Gratitude in an Indian Species of OivL — About the middle of 

 February, 1839, one of my servants brought me a nest of five owlets, apparently two 

 or three days old, which had been found by men at work in the house I then occupied 

 in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. The native, to whom I had given strict orders to 

 bring me every bird, reptile or insect, he found, while bringing me the owlets, begged 

 my leave to keep them. His request surprised me the more, as I was aware of the 

 superstitious dread with which owls are looked upon by natives in India ; and I asked 

 him, what he could do with them ? "I shall pound them, sir," was his answer. 

 " Pound them ! what for ? " " Why, sir, to make a plaister of them ; it is good against 

 sickness." " You must do without the plaister ; they shall not be pounded," was my 

 reply ; and I placed them inside a wire cage in the front hall. About dusk, that same 

 day, I heard a fluttering in the hall, and found that it proceeded from the mother owl, 

 which had brought a large blue rat to its nestlings. I caught her, and put her inside 

 the cage with her brood ; but although I gave her mice, she refused to eat, and died 

 the third day. I then put the five owlets in an aviary made of bamboo, which I had 

 constructed under the shade of a large mango-tree, in front of my house. From that 

 time the trouble of feeding those young owls was entirely taken off' my hand by the 

 male bird, which, regularly every night, brought at least a couple of mice or rats, 

 which it first killed, and then passed between the rails of the cage to its young. This 

 went on for at least a month ; when, requiring the aviary for kingfishers (Alcedo 

 Smyrniensis, radis and Bengalensis), I thought of restoring to liberty my five owls, by 

 this time full-fledged and able to provide for themselves. 1 therefore opened the cage- 

 door one evening, and they all flew out : but the next morning they were all come 

 back; so that I was obliged to take thern out that evening, and, having shut the door 

 of the aviary after them, I turned them literally out of doors, and bid them roam at 

 large. Still they would not go altogether ; for no sooner was the sun down, than, fly- 

 ing to the mango-tree, they began to coo for food, which was thrown at the bottom of 

 the tree for them : this took place regularly every day, until I was obliged to leave 

 India for the Cape. Before leaving, I gave injunctions to one of my servants, left 

 behind, to continue to feed those owls as before. And I was not a little surprised, as 

 well as pleased, when, the day of my return home, after an absence of eight months, 

 I heard, after sunset, the well-known note of my owls, perched as before on the old 

 mango-tree, and craving as always their evening meal. I learned from my servant 

 that they had never failed to resort to the same tree every evening during my absence. 



