THE LONG-EARED OWL 
a rich orange colour. Then he will slowly wink, 
first with one eye and then with the other. Nothing 
could be more comical than this see-saw blinking. 
But if he is angry his eyes will flash fire, and if you 
try to touch him he will fling himself upon his back 
and prepare to defend himself with claws and beak, 
all the while making a loud hissing noise. 
If you fix your eyes on him in turn and walk 
slowly round him, first to the right and then to the 
left, in a half circle, he will follow you with his eyes, 
without moving his head. Because of this, an absurd 
story is told that if you walk all round an Owl his 
head will drop off. 
Poor Mr. Owl ! He is badly treated, although 
he is so harmless. He destroys more rats and mice 
than fifty traps, and yet gamekeepers are his sworn 
foes, and shoot him without mercy, although he 
rarely touches young game. Smaller birds, too, will 
mob him during the day ^ a shocking indignity for 
such a wise-looking creature. 
Although the young Long-eared Owl looks so 
important, yet he has to put up with the cast-off nest 
of some other bird, or the deserted drey of a squirrel, 
for his mother never builds a nest of her own. 
17 
