16 
THE STORY OF A BROWN OWL. 
make a dash at a bat, which she did not seem to catch, but it was 
too dark to be certain. After they had started out hunting, they 
were usually quite silent until eleven o’clock, when they seemed to 
meet again, and made a most curious noise, almost like cats. Before 
dawn they would hoot for a long time, and in winter were often 
hooting as late as seven o’clock. It was not at all unusual to hear 
them hoot or call to each other in the day time. If I called 
“ Tommy” early in the evening, she was generally a long way off, 
but on wet nights both owls used to wait opposite my window till 
I fed them, and “ Tommy ” frequently came inside, and made 
herself heard downstairs. 
I left home in October, and when I returned at Christmas found 
the owls still there, and regular in taking food from my window 
ledge. “ Tommy ” came inside my room as soon as I called her, 
and in the daytime both owls could be seen roosting in the ivy. 
But, alas, during this vacation I had the misfortune to lose 
“ Tommy,” who died a most melancholy death from starvation. I 
missed her for a fortnight, and could not find out what had 
happened to her, but feared she had been shot, as owls so often are. 
However, at the end of the fortnight a man went into a malt kiln 
close by, to get it ready for use, and found poor “ Tommy ” dead on 
the floor. The kiln is very high, and she must have got in at the 
top and been unable to rise again to so great a height in so narrow 
a space. I greatly reproached myself for not looking there for her, 
but I went through the malt-houses all round the kiln, where 
“ Tommy” used to hunt for mice in the summer, and could see no 
sign of her having been there for some time. The cock bird did 
not seem to take the slightest notice of her absence ; he still con¬ 
tinued to roost in the same place, and during the cold weather 
came to my window for meat. He was very silent, and the last time 
I saw him in our trees was at the end of June ; but as we continu¬ 
ally hear an owl about the garden, I think he probably still stays 
near us. If “ Tommy ” had lived a few months longer I might 
have had opportunities of closely watching the nesting habits of 
Brown Owls, but at any rate she lived long enough to show how 
faithful and affectionate an owl can be. 
January, 1893. 
