ng at a hideous-looking goblin-like
creature, with a great head, whose bare skin was tufted with patches of
white down. Its eyes were enormous, but nearly covered by a
nasty-looking skin, which seemed to be stretched over them. Projecting
beneath was an ugly great beak, and its nearly naked body, beneath the
toppling head and weak neck, was swollen and bloated up as if it would
crack at a touch. Altogether it was as disgusting a looking object as
it was possible to imagine.

"That's his young brother," cried Mercer, laughing.

"Young nonsense! It must be a very, very old owl that has lost all its
feathers."

"Not it. That chap's somewhere about a fortnight old; and look there,
you can see an egg in the nest, too. Shouldn't I like it!"

"Then it's the nest belonging to three pairs of owls?" I said.

"No. That's the way they do--hatch one egg at a time. They all belong
to the same pair."

I felt a little incredulous, but my attention was taken up then by a
semicircle of little animals arranged about two feet from the
nesting-place.

"Why, they're all big mice," I said.

"No; nearly all young rats," said Mercer, counting. "Twenty-two," he
cried, "and all fresh. Why, they must have been caught last night.
That's a fine mouse," he cried, taking one up by its tail.

"Why, that must be a young rat," I said. "That little one's a mouse."

"No; this is a field mouse. Look at his long tail and long ears. The
rats have got shorter, thicker tails, and look thicker altogether."

"Now then, are you young gents a-coming down?" shouted Jem.

"Yes. All right. Directly. Oh, isn't that fellow a beauty!" he
continued, throwing down the mouse he had lifted back into its place in
the owls' larder. "I say, don't the old ones keep up a good supply!"

A second summons from the man made us prepare to descend, the full-grown
owl making no effort to escape, but blinking at us, and making a soft,
hissing noise. The goblin-looking younger one, however, gaped widely,
and seemed to tumble over backwards from the weight of its head. It was
so deplorable and old-looking a creature that it seemed impossible that
it could ever grow into a soft, thickly feathered bird like the other,
and I said so.

"Oh, but it will," said Mercer; "all birds that I know of, except ducks
and chickens and geese, are horridly ugly till they are fledged. Young
thrushes and rooks are nasty-looking, big-eyed, naked things at first.
There: you