256 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. IX. 



come in view of them. And, so retiring, I have 

 marvelled at the seeming knowledge possessed by 

 the bird of her own tints, and have pondered 

 upon the instinct which has guided her choice of 

 the limited patch of ground best according with 

 them. If a night-jar possessed the strange faculty 

 of the chameleon, the trout, or the cuttle-fish, and 

 was able to change its colour to that of the spot 

 on which it rests and nidificates, the explanation 

 of the baffling correspondence would be easy ; 

 but the mystery of the colorific movements in the 

 skin and of the volition, conscious or unconscious, 

 which the chameleons obey, remains. I have 

 generally recognised the advent in May of this 

 migratory bird by its singular jarring note. But 

 when its favourite food, the large moths and 

 chaffers, abounds, its active wheeling flight about 

 the old oaks is remarkable/ 



The mention of the night-birds suggests a 

 characteristic story of Owen which is told by Dr. 

 A. S. Murray, of the British Museum : — 



1 One day when Professor Owen was passing 

 through the room of Greek and Roman bronzes, 

 as he often did in his Bloomsbury days, I happened 

 to be at work there. He stopped to speak, and 

 while speaking observed close beside him the 

 well-known bronze head of Hypnos with the wing 

 still springing from one of its temples. The form 

 of the wing caught Professor Owen's eye, and he 

 asked, " Have you observed that this is the wing 



