WHITE OR BARN OWL. 141 



which they fed their voracious young.* In autumn also 

 they have been known to pay a nightly visit to the places 

 where springes were laid for wood-cocks and thrushes. 

 The' former they killed and ate on the spot, but some- 

 times carried off the thrushes and smaller birds, which, 

 like mice, they either swallowed entire, rejecting the 

 indigestible parts by the bill ; or, if too large, they plucked 

 off the feathers and then bolted them whole, or only took 

 them down piecemeal. 



In fine weather they venture out into the neighbouring 

 woods at night, returning to their usual retreat at the 

 approach of morning. When they first sally from their 

 holes, their eyes hardly well opened, they fly tumbling 

 along almost to the ground, and usually proceed side- 

 ways in their course. In severe seasons, 5 or 6, probably 

 a family brood, are discovered in the same retreat, or 

 concealed in the fodder of the barn, where they find sjhel- 

 ter, warmth, and food. The Barn Owl drops her eggs 

 in the bare holes of walls, in the joists of houses, or in 

 the hollows of decayed trees, and spreads no lining to re- 

 ceive them : they are 3 to 5 in number, of a ^vhitish 

 color, and rather long than round. The season of laying, 

 in Europe, is from the end of March to the beginning of 

 April. 



When out abroad by day, like most of the other species, 

 they are numerously attended by the little gossiping and 

 insulting birds of the neighbourhood : and to add to their 

 distraction, it is not an uncommon practice, in the north 

 of England, for boys to set up a shout and follow the Owl, 

 who becomes so deafened and stunned as at times nearly to 

 fall down, and thus become an easy prey to his persecutors ; 



* This happened in England ; gold-fish being missed from a pond, they were sap- 

 posed to be stolen in the night, and the thief turned out at length to be an owl. 



