UNDER THE GAZE OF 125 OWLS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 34, 3 November 1928, Page 26

UNDER THE GAZE OF 125 OWLS

QUEER BIRDS (To have .125 owls staring at you and .every now and then tweaking their beaks to show you their contempt of you 'makes’ you wonder -what is the matter with you. I have seen 125 owls. I feel that the num who can deliberately possess and withstand the gaze of 125. owls of such unshifting eyes must have a very clear conscience (says Max Murray, in the “Daily News"). The man is Mr. J. Spedan Lewis, head of a large London firm. He keeps them at his country home. There are 'owls there from the four, corners of the earth looking from their pleasant home out on to the strip of the Thames and one of the loveliest fragments of England. Each pair has its own house and its own peculiarity.: Being owls, they have much'in cohmion: •'■:■; For instance, husbands and wives become .irritated at so much living to-, gather. Then they light, and if they are not stopped one will often kill the other," and it is the .tradition that the winner shall eat the loser, , . . ■ Nearly all of them in common, like rabbits and mice. They eat -10 mice and •20 rubbits a day ; all of these are bred ou tlie premises. ~ . The owner of the owls has been making his collection for. years.. Twelve months ago he took it to its present home;, He has in his employ a curator and a man and a boy to care for them. He has sent special.collectors hunting for them all over the world, and has bought them .from dealers . in everycountry.. ' .. r <.•

There are owls there that have come from the Arctic Circle find Japan, Child ami Bonito. and• Soii'th Africa and India. There is .the Devil. Owl, whose, arrival at a. native village causes the natives to desert their homes.

A-pair of eagle owls from America produced at IVargrave the first young of;their species ever born’ in captivity. This was/in April. They became so savage then hi the. defence of their young that the keeper,could not enter their domain. -They attacked a boy.who did. go in, and lie. hud to spend siihie time in bed... Tlie young owl is taking lifter Ids’ parents. He is the most savage In the aviary. ' . ■ There has been another young one of a rare species born there. He was the first burrowing owl born in England. The day that he arrived his parents dug a burrow for him. Later on the keeper heard a tremendous commotion. He came to them and found them chattering ou the ground. He went an they began to chattel' again. Then he discovered that their burrow had fallen in and the little one inside. When he recovered the baby it was dead. There is the old owl who is allowed to wander at large.' He follows like a dog tlie man who gives him food, flopping along at his heels. It is this aviary that supplies most of the owls to the Jj°ndon Zoo. It is the finest collection of them in England. . The solemn eyes of the birds recognise a stranger when he; visits them. They also know the people, who take care of them. They flop down from their perches on to the shoulder of the girl who is their curator, and also the man who feeds them. To one who does not know them they, would not appear to be very alluring pets, but he should hear how they are spoken of at The Arches at Wargrave. All of them have their .Christian names. They knpw to the minutes the time at- which' they should be .fed. As a collection they are ■ more representative of the world than the League of Nations.