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ITS RETIRING HABITS. 
the dove-cot, we should see the pigeons in commotion as 
soon as it begins its evening flight, but the pigeons heed 
it not ; whereas if the sparrowhawk or hobby should 
make its appearance, the whole community would be up 
at once—proof sufficient that the barn owl is not looked 
upon as a bad or even a suspicious character by the 
inhabitants of the dove-cot.” 
Its habit of breeding in retired situations is alluded to 
in Titus Androniciis , Act ii. Sc. 3 :— 
“ Here never shines the sun ; here nothing breeds, 
Unless the nightly owl.” 
And Shakespeare has truly characterized the appearance 
of this bird on the wing, when he speaks of 
“ The night-owl’s lazy flight.” 
Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 1. 
Why the owl has been called the “ bird of wisdom ” it 
is not easy to determine. Possibly because it can see in 
the dark, and is the only bird which looks straightforward. 
Shakespeare frequently alludes to its “ five wits,” and the 
readers of Tennyson’s poems will no doubt remember the 
lines:— 
“ Alone, and warming his five wits , 
The white owl in the belfry sits.” 
With our early writers the five senses appear to have 
been generally called the “ five wits.” Chaucer, in the 
