"This is the story of a man and his owl. But what a man and what an owl The owl is one of our planet's most beautiful and elusive beings, an enchanting spook, a feathered spirit from some ancient world.

"The man is Robert Nero, his name synonymous with that of the Great Gray Owl, his love affair with the species spanning twenty-five years. For me, a non-professional adrift in a sea of biologists, it is heartening to find in Dr. Nero not just the able scientific mind but also a sense of wonder, undiminished by the years. Perhaps it is the mortality of all living things that...