THE STORY OF A BROWN OWL. 
9 
contact of teacher and taught, the hand to hand, heart to heart, 
eye to eye, and brain to brain of the class room, should year by 
year attain a wider realization. In this work Mason College has no 
desire to pursue an isolated course. Her desire is rather to 
bring upon a common basis, so far as the Midland Counties are 
concerned, the various University organizations which have this 
one common end. And it is in the belief that what advantages 
one advantages all, that we would most warmly welcome the 
cordial co-operation with us in a common local scheme of our two 
ancient Universities. Their interests are imperial, ours are 
mainly local. Our work leads up to theirs in so far as any 
rejuvenescence of English learning, wheresoever it be, must 
redound to the advantage of the older Universities ; their work 
leads up to ours, inasmuch as any stirring of the intellectual 
waters of the Midland Counties must lead to accessions to the ranks 
of those who cast in their student lot with our great Midland 
University College. We have in use a common method, and in 
view a common aim and common good. 
_W. H. 
THE STORY OF A BROWN OWL.* 
BY H. C. PLAYNE. 
In November, 1889, I was passing Mr. Innes’ shop, in Queen 
Street, when my attention was attracted by a curious cry incessantly 
uttered by a poor Tawny Owl in a cage. She looked so unhappy 
that I bought her, and turned her loose in my rooms in college. 
Her wings were clipped, and she soon grew very tame, answering 
to the name of “ Tommy,” which I gave her before I knew she was 
a hen bird. During the day she would doze perched on the 
mantelpiece or on a perch I put up for her, and when quite 
comfortable her eyes were closed, her beak rested on her breast, 
and one leg was tucked away under the feathers. In the evening 
she was more lively, and would run about the room investigating 
everything, and nothing delighted her more than to find some paper 
* Read before the Oxford Natural History Society, October 27tli, 1892. 
January, 1893. 
