"An affection for animal life was one of 's earliest characteristics. One of the rooms on the second floor was set apart as his den, and here he would sit of an evening, pondering his verses. One night, as he leant from the window, he heard an owl hooting; and, with a faculty for imitation which was strong in him, he cried back to the bird. The poet's 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' was so natural that the owl flew to the wind, and into the room, where it was captured and kept for a long while as a pet. Ingenuity has traced to this story the origin of the later poem 'The Owl,' which catches with singular fidelity an echo of the bird's cry."