172 
THE TAWNY OWL. 
norant of the true nature of the kingfisher when 
they rashly removed it from its old associates, and 
assigned it a place amongst strangers^ whose forma- 
tion differs so widely from its own. 
NOTES ON THE HABITS OF THE TAWNY 
OWL. 
Of all our British owls^ this is by far the greatest 
favourite with me, and I take great interest in its 
preservation. 
Whilst temperance societies are rising up in all 
directions to warn the thirsty sinner that gin and 
godliness are not in unison, I could wish that some 
benevolent person would instruct the ignorant on 
the true nature and habits of many poor dumb 
animals, which undergo a perpetual persecution, 
under the erroneous idea that they are inimical to 
the interests of man. I would willingly go twenty 
miles on foot, over the flintiest road, to hear some jj 
patroness of infant schools tell her little pupils that, \ 
nowadays, there are no old women who ride through j 
the air on broomsticks, with a black cat in their 
laps ; that ravens, owls, and magpies have long since j| 
dropped all dealing with people in the other world ; j 
and that hedgehogs are clearly proved never to have < 
sucked a cow ; though our silly farmers, almost to a 
man, would fain persuade us that these little harm- 
