and its Benefits to Man, Ji3 



month of July. On ascending the ruin, I found a brood of 

 young owls in the apartment. 



Upon this ruin is placed a perch, about a foot from the 

 hole at which the owls enter. Sometimes, at midday, when 

 the weather is gloomy, you may see an owl upon it, ap- 

 parently enjoying the refreshing diurnal breeze. This year 

 (1831) a pair of barn owls hatched their young, on the 7th of 

 September, in a sycamore tree, near the old ruined gateway. 



If this useful bird caught its food by day, instead of hunting 

 for it by night, mankind would have ocular demonstration 

 of its utility in thinning the country of mice, and it would be 

 protected and encouraged every where. It would be with us 

 what the ibis was with the Egyptians. When it has young, 

 it will bring a mouse to the nest about every twelve or fifteen 

 minutes. But, in order to have a proper idea of the enor- 

 mous quantity of mice which this bird destroys, we must exa- 

 mine the pellets which it ejects from its stomach in the place 

 of its retreat. Every pellet contains from four to seven ske- 

 letons of mice. In sixteen months from the time that the 

 apartment of the owl on the old gateway was cleaned out, 

 there has been a deposit of above a bushel of pellets. 



The barn owl sometimes carries off rats. One evening I 

 was sitting under a shed, and killed a very large rat, as it 

 was coming out of a hole, about ten yards from where I was 

 watching it I did not go to take it up, hoping to get an- 

 other shot. As it lay there, a barn owl pounced upon it, and 

 flew away with it. 



This bird has been known to catch fish. Some years ago, 

 on a fine evening in the month of July, long before it was 

 dark, as I was standing on the middle of the bridge, and 

 minuting the owl by my watch, as she brought mice into her 

 nest, all on a sudden she dropped perpendicularly into the water. 

 Thinking that she had fallen down in epilepsy, my first 

 thoughts were to go and fetch the boat ; but before I had 

 well got to the end of the bridge, I saw the owl rise out of 

 the water with a fish in her claws, and take it to the nest. 

 This fact is mentioned by the late much revered and lamented 

 Mr. Atkinson of Leeds, in his Compendium^ in a note, under 

 the signature of W., a friend of his, to whom I had commu- 

 nicated it a few days after I had witnessed it. 



I cannot make up my mind to pay any attention to the 

 description of the amours of the owl by a modern writer ; 

 at least the barn owl plays off no buffooneries here, such as 

 those which he describes. An owl is an owl all the world 

 over, whether under the influence of Momus, Venus, or 

 Diana. 



When farmers complain that the barn owl destroys the 



