32 
natural history. 
seen and give the call. At this, all the little birds flock to the 
place where they expect to find their well-known enemy; but, 
instead of finding their stupid antagonist, they are stuck fast 
to the hedge themselves. This sport must be put in prac- 
tice an hour before night-fall, in order to be successful ; for 
if it is put off till later, those birds which but a few minutes 
sooner came to provoke their enemy, will then fly from him 
with as much terror as they just before shewed insolence. 
It is not unpleasant to see one stupid bird made in some 
sort a decoy to deceive another. The great horned owl is 
sometimes made use of for this purpose to lure the kite, when 
the falconer desires to catch him for the purposes of training 
the falcon. Upon this occasion, they clap the tail of a fox 
to the great owl, to render his figure extraordinary ; in which 
trim he sails slowly along, flying low, which is his usual 
manner. The kite, either curious to observe this odd kind of 
animal, or perhaps inquisitive to see whether it may not be 
proper for food, flies after, and comes nearer and nearer. In 
this manner he continues to hover, and sometimes to descend, 
till the falconer, setting a strong winged hawk against him, 
seizes him for the purpose of training his young ones at home. 
The usual place where the great horned owl breeds is in 
the cavern of a rock, the hollow of a tree, or the turret of 
some ruined castle. Its nest is near three feet in diameter, 
and composed of sticks, bound together by the fibrous roots 
of trees, and lined with leaves on the inside. It lays about 
three eggs, which are larger than those of a hen, and of a 
colour somewhat resembling the bird itself. The lesser owl 
of this kind never makes a nest for itself, but always takes 
up with the old nest of some other bird, which it has often 
been forced to abandon. It lays four or five eggs ; and the 
young are all white at first, but change colour in about a fort- 
night. The other owls in general build near the place where 
they chiefly prey; that which leeds upon birds in some 
neighbouring grove, that which preys chiefly upon mice near 
some farmer's yard, where the proprietor of the place takes 
care to give it perfect security. In fact, whatever mischief 
one species of owl may do in the woods, the barn-owl makes 
a sufficient recompense for, by being equally active in destroy- 
ing mice nearer home ; so that a single owl is said to be more 
serviceable than half a dozen cats in ridding the barn of its 
domestic vermin. “ In the year 1580,” says an old writer, 
“ at Hallontide, an army of mice so over-run the marshes 
near Southminster, that they eat up the grass to the very roots. 
But at length a great number of strange painted owls came 
and devoured all the mice. The like happened again in 
Essex about sixty years after.” 
