OUR HOME BIRDS. 
245 
ful, disposition by assimilating them, not only in 
form of countenance, but in voice, manners, and ap- 
petite, to some particular beasts of prey, secluding 
them from the enjoyment of the gay sunshine of day, 
and giving them little more than the few solitary 
hours of morning and evening twilight to procure 
their food, while all the tuneful tribes, a few ex- 
cepted, are wrapped in silence and repose. That 
their true character, however, should not be con- 
cealed from those weaker animals on whom they 
feed, he has stamped their countenance with strong 
traits of their murderer, the cat ; and birds in this 
respect are perhaps better physiognomists than men.’ 
“ The flight of owls is very curious and beautiful, 
and on fine moonlight nights, when they are usually 
out in great force, they seem as if they were wafted 
among the shadows of the trees, appearing suddenly 
at one moment, and disappearing as mysteriously the 
next. No sound of wings gives notice of their ap- 
proach, and they might pass within a couple of yards 
of a person without attracting attention. They fly 
rather slowly, which is probably to guard them 
against injury from objects against which they might 
strike themselves ; and they scarcely seem to have 
any definite object when on the wing, but appear to 
be blown about by the breeze as purposeless as a 
bunch of thistledown; to which, indeed, they bear 
21 * 
