ITS RETIRING HABITS.
Its habit of breeding in retired situations is alluded to in Titus Andronicus, Act ii. Sc. 3:—
“Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds,
Unless the nightly owl.”
And Shakespeare has truly characterized the appearance of this bird on the wing, when he speaks of
“The night-owl’s lazy flight.”
Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 1.
ITS FIVE WITS.
Why the owl has been called the “bird of wisdom” it is not easy to determine. Possibly because it can see in the dark, and is the only bird which looks straightforward. Shakespeare frequently alludes to its “five wits,” and the readers of Tennyson’s poems will no doubt remember the lines:—
“Alone, and warming his five wits,