
BY DR: 1. T. KAUP: 
We can say with the greatest certainty, that all the animals 
which rove in the twilight or night for their food, have a better 
hearing than sight. This is the case with every night animal which 
has been discovered up to the present time. When some naturalists 
say that the Owls have a good sight, they are quite wrong. I 
mean that the Owls, particularly the Night Owls, make more use of 
their hearing for catching their prey than of their sight. The lively 
motions of the mice, their perpetual rustle on the dry leaves, must 
give the Owls the first notice of the presence of their prey. The 
eyes, however, may be used at the moment of seizing the prey. 
Most of the Owls can be attracted by a good imitation of the 
voice of the mouse, and in some instances where the hunter was 
quite still in his position, the Owl has flown to his head. With 
foxes the case is the same; when the sportsman is placed in the 
night out of the wind, the fox will come to his very feet. 
All the little birds attack the Owls for a longer or shorter time, 
when they find him out in daylight. Perhaps, however, it is more 
astonishment at such an unusual form than antipathy. A goat- 
sucker, thrown among a troop of hens will be attacked by them in 
the same manner. The antipathy can never depend upon expe- 
rience, for if an Owl occasionally catches a bird by night, the poor 
bird expiates the first acquaintance with its life. =. 
In the spring, when the little birds are employed in feeding their 
young, they come out only a very short time when they seo an 
Owl, and fly away when they have satisfied their curiosity. In the 
Zoological Gardens in London we may see, in an ican igen of 
the Scops asio among a great number of other birds, which are 80 
accustomed to it that they never attack it, and in fact take not 
the least notice of it. , 
The demeanour of the Crows and Rapaces towards the Ovls, is, 
in comparison with that of the little birds, more an innate antipathy, 
like that of cats and dogs, dogs and foxes. Anteers: 
All the Owls have a far-sounding voice, howling, jowli 
Whizzing,* which they sound very industriously at the breeding 
Season, and which fills the superstitious with anguish and terror. 
ng, or 
Auf, Uf (Swed.), Ugu 
Bubo, Aluco, Ulula, &c., 
man more frequently 
* Nearly all the names of the Owls, as Owl, Eule, Uhu, 
(Turk), Flibou, Flulotte, Ghouette, Chevéche, Strix, Pfyns, 
‘re imitations of the voice. This is quite natural, because 
ears than sees these birds. 
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