This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...the skin under one foot, and pulling with the beak; for now and then it would yield suddenly, and he would slip backwards and open his big wings to regain his balance. We had a pair of White Owls nesting in this district for years--in fact, as long as I remember these birds had reared a family in a certain barn. But the place changing hands, the two parents were slaughtered, with their young, and the whole family are now to be seen in a glass case, where they might be labelled 'The Last of the Barn Owls'; for since then not a single specimen has been seen in the district, and now that so much land is being covered with buildings, I am afraid no more will attempt to haunt the neighbourhood again.1 There is often a nest in a certain churchyard in North London, and when the nest contains large youngsters, the most weird and unearthly noises are to be heard. No wonder that the ignorant imagine the place to be haunted, and I confess that I should have thought the same unless I had known that the noises proceeded from my friends the Owls. The Brown Owl also has been responsible for many frights administered to late travellers. It is certainly a nerve-trying experience to be walking home alone in the cold, small hours of the morning, and when passing through a gate leading on to a long, lonely pathway, to hear a loud whoo-hoo-e-hoo just above your head, and, looking up, to see nothing but a misty form disappearing across the meadow. But I think the worst thing of all is to listen to a young Tawny Owl endeavouring to 'sing' or tune its voice, for even the experienced naturalist will sometimes be baffled by the remarkable noises these ambitious youngsters make. 'Since the above was written, in 1906, I am glad to say that the White Owls have...