THE OWL. 
31 
after to disgorge the skin, arid bones, rolled up in a pellet, 
as being indigestible. 
As they are incapable of supporting the light of the day, 
or at least of then seeing and readily avoiding their danger, 
they keep all this time concealed in some obscure retreat, 
suited to their gloomy appetites, and there continue in soli- 
tude and silence. The cavern of a rock, the darkest part of 
an hollow tree, the battlements of a ruined unfrequented 
castle, some obscure hole in a farmer’s out-house, are the 
places where they are usually found : if they be seen out of 
these retreats in the day-time, they may be considered as hav- 
ing lost their way ; as having by some accident been thrown 
into the midst of their enemies, and surrounded with danger. 
In this distress they are obliged to take shelter in the first 
tree or hedge that offers, there to continue concealed all day, 
till the returning darkness once more supplies them with a 
better plan of the country. But it too often happens, that, 
"with all their precaution to conceal themselves, they are spied 
out by the other birds of the place, and are sure to receive no 
mercy. The blackbird, the thrush, the jay, the bunting, and 
the red-breast, all come in file, and employ their little arts of 
insult and abuse. The smallest, the feeblest, and the most 
contemptible of this unfortunate bird’s enemies are then the 
foremost to injure and torment him. They increase their 
cries and turbulence round him, flap him with their wings, 
and are ready to shew their courage to be great, as they are 
sensible that their danger is but small. The unfortunate owl, 
not knowing where to attack, or whither to fly, patiently 
sits and suffers all their insults. Astonished and dizzy, he 
only replies to their mockeries by awkward and ridiculous 
gestures, by turning his head, and rolling his eyes with an 
air ot stupidity. It is enough that an owl appears by day to 
set the whole grove into a kind of uproar. Either the aver- 
sion all the small birds have to this animal, or the conscious- 
ness of their own security, makes them pursue him without 
ceasing, while they encourage each other by their mutual 
cries to lend assistance in their laudable undertaking. 
It sometimes happens, however, that the little birds pursue 
their insults with the same imprudent zeal with which the 
owl himself had pursued his depredations. They hunt him 
the whole day until evening returns ; which restoring him his 
faculties of sight once more, he makes the foremost of his 
pursuers pay dear for their former sport ; nor is man always 
an unconcerned spectator here. The bird-catchers have got 
an art of counterfeiting the cry of an owl exactly ; and, 
laving before lined the branches of an hedge, they sit un- 
