. Animal life in field and garden . in the day-time and insult the owl, flee from it in wild alarmas soon as darkness allows it to move about and useits powerful talons and hooked beak. ^The redbreast had better get out of the owlsway when the owl can see, said Emile; it wouldpay dearly if it tried then to pull out a feather. On account of the great size of their eyes, noc-turnal birds of prey require a soft light like that ofdawn and nightfall. Consequently, they leave theirlurking-places to hunt for prey either soon aftersunset or just before dawn. Then it is that theirraids are most likely
. Animal life in field and garden . in the day-time and insult the owl, flee from it in wild alarmas soon as darkness allows it to move about and useits powerful talons and hooked beak. ^The redbreast had better get out of the owlsway when the owl can see, said Emile; it wouldpay dearly if it tried then to pull out a feather. On account of the great size of their eyes, noc-turnal birds of prey require a soft light like that ofdawn and nightfall. Consequently, they leave theirlurking-places to hunt for prey either soon aftersunset or just before dawn. Then it is that theirraids are most likely to be successful, for they findthe small animals either fast asleep or on the pointof falling asleep. Moonlight nights are the best fortheir purposes; those are their nights of veritablejoy and feasting, when they can hunt for hours ata time and lay in large supplies of choice when there is no moon they have only one scanthour in the early morning and another in the eve-ning for hunting. That means they must fast for. NOCTURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 9S hours and that is why they are so greedy when theycan get as much food as they want. They are very silly to fast like that, Emiledeclared. In their place I should hunt all night,even without a moon. You say that because you think the owl can seeclearly in the blackest darkness. But you are mis-taken. To see, we must not merely direct our gazetoward the object tobe seen; we must re-ceive into our eyesthe light reflectedfrom that object. Inthe act of seeing,nothing goes out from us; everything Burrowing Owl comes to us from the thing seen. We do not reallythrow our glance toward any given object; it is theobject that throws its light toward us; or if it doesnot throw any light, it is for that reason I am now saying about human beings appliesto all animals. Not one, absolutely not one, can seein the absence of light. I had always thought, said Louis, that catscould see in pitch-darkness. Others think so too, bu
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