CHAPTER XII NOCTURNAL BIRDS OF PREY “The barn-owl, the horned owl, the gray owl, the white owl, and other similar birds are known under the general name of nocturnal birds of prey. They are called birds of prey because they live by hunting game of various sorts, especially such rodents as rats and mice. They are among birds what the cat is among mammals, untiring destroyers of those fur-covered creatures of which the mouse is the most familiar example to you. Our language has long since taken note of this resemblance in habits by coining the name chat-huant [hooting cat], which is applied to some of these birds. They are cats that fly, that hoot, or, in other words, that utter cries like mournful howls of distress. Also, they are nocturnal; that is, they remain during the day in some obscure hiding-place, which they leave only at nightfall to hunt in the twilight and moonlight. “Their eyes are very large and round and are placed in the front of the head instead of one on each side. A wide ring of fine feathers encircles each eye. The need for these enormous eyes is plainly seen in the birds’ nocturnal habits. Being obliged to seek their food in a very feeble light, they must, in order to see with any distinctness, have eyes that admit as much light as possible; that is, the eyes must be such as can open wide. “But this development of the organs of sight, so useful in the night-time, is a serious inconvenience in the bright light of day. Dazzled, blinded by the sun’s rays, the bird of darkness stays in some safe hole and dares not come out. If obliged to issue forth, it does so with extreme caution for fear of hurting itself. It wings its way with hesitation and in short slow flights. Other birds, birds of the day, seeing its uncertainty and awkwardness, come and vie with one another in offering insults to the clumsy stranger. The redbreast and the tomtit are among the first to hasten to the scene, followed by the finch, the blackbird, the jay, the thrush, and many others. Perched on a branch, the night-bird receives the aggressors with a grotesque balancing of its body, turning its big head this way and that in a ridiculous manner and rolling its great eyes as if thinking thus to terrify its persecutors. But all in vain. The smallest and weakest are the boldest in tormenting it; they assault their victim with beak and claw, pulling out its feathers before the hapless bird can muster courage to defend itself.” “Just think,” said Emile, “of a teasing tomtit and a saucy redbreast making sport of an owl blinded by the sun! Why do they behave so?”