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all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the wood kinds. The white owl does, indeed, snore and hiss in a tremendous manner. I have known a whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining the churchyard to be full of goblins and spectres.”

The only other species of owl we will notice is the common WOOD OWL. It is destructive in its habits to game and young poultry, but elegant in its flight.

In the day it keeps close in some hollow tree, or thickly matted ivy-bush; and in the evening sails forth along the hedge sides, and along the skirts of woods, beating the ground with great regularity, and often dropping suddenly to pick up some ill-fated mouse who had crept out in supposed security. The fur and feathers of their prey (a portion of which is swallowed by all rapacious birds) is ejected in pellets; and Mr. White mentions, that an old hollow tree, the habitation of successive generations of owls,

* White's Selborne, vol. i. p. 261. The owl, if undisturbed, frequents the same place a long time. One had been used to inhabit a hole in the wall of a house: on repairing the house, this hole was stopped up; but the owl was, in consequence, so clamorous, that the inhabitants had no peace till the hole was again opened. Jesse's Gleanings.

being taken down, some bushels of these pellets were found in it.*

We do not see why the owl, if domesticated, might not be a valuable assistant to the husbandman. If there was one or two belonging to every rick-yard and barn, they would well repay a little trouble; and would be at work when others sleep. The habit of taming birds or other animals is of no little use in forming kind and patient dispositions in the young! Those who have seen the storks in Holland building on the cottage roofs, and stalking about the road sides and dykes, will not think this a hopeless attempt.

It is by continual and often wanton persecution that all the lower animals are driven from us and their dread might soon be overcome by kind treatment.

Those who reside in the country might thus derive a constant source of innocent amusement. Hawks formerly were taught to assist in the chase. The otter and cormorant have been tamed to fish for their masters, and still do so in India. We have seen numbers of wild ducks flying round a person they were used to,

*This is the bird whose melancholy, but, in our opinion, pleasing and musical call we often hear,-hoo; hoo

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+ Heber's Journal in India.

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and quacking their joy at his approach with food.* Pheasants, in several preserves, come to the keeper's whistle to be fed. Sparrows, and other small birds will soon approach those who feed them regularly.

The other division of rapacious birds, viz. the falcon tribe, is familiarly divided into four families, consisting of eagles, kites, buzzards, and hawks: they are found in almost every part of the world, from the frigid to the torrid zone. We shall only advert to a few of those most frequently found in England, and say little of the scarcer species.

Some of the EAGLES are still found in Scotland, and occasionally visit our mountainous districts on the sea-shores. +

* It was curious to see an old keeper, accustomed to feed the wild ducks at a seat in Staffordshire, holding a sort of conversation with the flights as they passed him towards home. "Those are my ducks, your honour!" says old Joseph: "hic! hic! hic!" “Quack! quack! reply the ducks. “We are your ducks, Joseph!”

+ An admirable description of the habits of the American eagles, by Wilson and Audubon, will be found in the "American Ornithology," lately published in a cheap form. The account of the contests between the whiteheaded eagle and the fish hawk, and the eagle's chase of the swan, on the Mississippi, can hardly be surpassed. Throughout the volumes there are many other excellent descriptions, replete with interest to any one fond of natural history.

The rapacious birds, however, commonly found with us do not consist of more than eight species, four of a larger and four of a smaller size; and almost all distinguished from each other by some characteristic, which may be recognised by even a careless observer.

The largest and, perhaps, most common is the BUZZARD, a large brown hawk with a square tail. It is of an indolent nature, and will sit for hours on a tree or eminence: there

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is generally a pair or two about most large woods. In the breeding season it soars to a great height, ascending spirally; and its cry or call is very loud and piercing, sounding like the word pe-e-hawk, drawled out shrilly. This bird is often taken young, and, being preserved, is useful in a garden to drive away birds.

The MOOR BUZZARD, or WHITE-HEADED HARPY, is a handsome bird of rust-coloured plumage, distinguished by white or yellow feathers on the crown of the head. His haunts are amid fens and marshes, preying on rabbits, waterfowl, frogs, and fish: his flight is near the ground, and undulating; and his singular appearance contrasts well with the bleak and uncultivated fens and marshy commons where he is found.

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The FORK-TAILED KITE, or GLEAD, easily known by his forked tail, is not uncommon,

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