HEDGEHOG OR OWL?
(To THE Emma or THE " Sescrsroa."1 have been interested in reading the letters in the Spectator of December 11th with regard to the " heavy breath. ing" often heard in country lanes, and alleged to be the breathing of the hedgehog by your correspondent in the Spectator of December 4th. Many years ago, when I first went to a country parish, unacquainted with anything rural, walking home one evening at dusk I heard "heavy breathing" apparently coming from the ditch or hedge. I stopped, but could find no cause for what I had heard. My parishioners assured me it was the " breathing " of young owls, and I have always believed this to he correct. In a book on British Birds, by W. H. Hudson, he says, in his notes on the barn owl: "The young make a curious snoring noise, which is their hunger cry, and it has been said that this cry is also occasionally uttered by the old bird on the wing."—I am, Sir, de., Ex-Rscron.
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