256 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. IX. 
come in view of them. And, so retiring, I have 
marvelled at the seeming knowledge possessed by 
the bird of her own tints, and have pondered 
upon the instinct which has guided her choice of 
the limited patch of ground best according with 
them. If a night-jar possessed the strange faculty 
of the chameleon, the trout, or the cuttle-fish, and 
was able to change its colour to that of the spot 
on which it rests and nidificates, the explanation 
of the baffling correspondence would be easy ; 
but the mystery of the colorific movements in the 
skin and of the volition, conscious or unconscious, 
which the chameleons obey, remains. I have 
generally recognised the advent in May of this 
migratory bird by its singular jarring note. But 
when its favourite food, the large moths and 
chaffers, abounds, its active wheeling flight about 
the old oaks is remarkable.’ 
The mention of the night-birds suggests a 
characteristic story of Owen which Is told by Dr. 
A. S. Murray, of the British Museum : — 
‘ One day when Professor Owen was passing 
through the room of Greek and Roman bronzes, 
as he often did in his Bloomsbury days, I happened 
to be at work there. He stopped to speak, and 
while speaking observed close beside him the 
well-known bronze head of Hypnos with the wing 
still springing from one of its temples. The form 
of the wing caught Professor Owen’s eye, and he 
asked, “ Have you observed that this is the wing 
