14 
THE STORY OF A BROWN OWL. 
great noise. “ Tommy” came to my window and flew off with a 
piece of meat either in her beak or claws, and I could hear the 
cock bird crying after her. Then “ Tommy ” came back before 
she could have had time to eat the meat, and ate the next piece 
in my room. The other owl was now silent, and was, I suppose 
occupied with the first piece of meat. The owls were always more 
anxious for meat on wet nights, when their natural food must be 
more difficult to obtain. 
Before I left home I had seen both owls go into the barrel, so I 
felt sure they were going to nest there, and hoped when I came 
home again to find young birds. When I examined the barrel, 
however, towards the end of June, I found no signs of a nest, 
though the owls had pulled about some straw I had put there, and 
evidently used it as a store house; as there were there some pieces 
of meat which had been given them the night before. Tawny 
Owls always seem ready to hide food they do not want at the 
time, and “ Tommy ” used to do so in my rooms at Oxford. 
Perhaps the reason the owls visited the barrel first thing every 
evening was that they might have a little refreshment before 
starting out hunting. 
Several times during the summer ‘‘Tommy” jumped on my 
face while I was in bed, when she wanted more food, and if I 
showed the slightest sign of being awake she cried incessantly 
till she got it; if there was no more meat, the only thing to be 
done was to lie quite still, till she gave it up as a bad job. One 
night, before I got into bed, while “ Tommy” was in the room, 
the cock bird came to the window, but was too nervous to stay 
long, though I often saw him there after the light had been put out. 
Almost every day, when the owls were roosting in the ivy, other 
birds would collect on the branches near, and chatter at them, 
sometimes even flying against them, though it did not appear to 
affect the owls at all. I do not think that these gatherings were 
accidental, or caused by the sudden discovery of the owls by any 
bird, but feel sure that the other birds in the garden knew where 
the owls were (for they were generally in the same place), and had 
an occasional owl-baiting for amusement’s sake ; for I have seen 
January, 1893. 
