Courageous Owls The owl is, of course, a bird of
astonishing courage, almost of savagery. This very week, oddly enough, I talked with two people, both residents in Worcestershire, who had been directly attacked in person by the tawny owl, one while handling the young in the nest, one almost gratuitously. One of them was telling me his experience as we approached a stunted and hollow oak where owls were nesting. A stone thrown against the trunk dislodged the bird, though it was midday and the sun very bright. One of the party then climbed the tree and peered into the hollow and was not a little disturbed, after the story we had been hearing, by the rush of a second owl which almost touched him as it flew out. Happily it was not a tawny but, to my delight, a barn owl, which is the most useful of the tribe and said to be decreasing. The two birds flew a considerable distance and to the same place. The owl does not much enjoy the light but its eyes must be adaptable to its brightness.
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