An extract from Robbie Millen's review of John Lewis-Stempel's 'The Secret Lives of The Owl' in 'The Weekend Australian':
'One myth — that of the wise owl — is certainly not true. Compared with crows, they are pea-brained. The little owl (Athene noctua, named after the Greek goddess of wisdom), we learn, is no virtuoso performer. As Lewis-Stempel comments: “Notes in
a repertoire more given to volume than tunefulness include ook, ugh and eek.” It does have a clever hunting trick, though. It will kill a mole and leave its body to attract beetles, which it then devours.'
