70 THE WHITE, OR SCREECU OWL. 



selves near it, and imitate the cry of an Owl ; when instantly all tht 

 small birds who hear it flock to the place, in hopes of their accustomed 

 game ; but, instead of meeting a stupid and dazzled antagonist, they 

 find themselves ensnared by an artful and unrelenting foe. 



This want of sight is compensated by their peculiar quickness of 

 hearing ; for the latter sense is much more acute in the Owls than in 

 most other birds. 



The White Owl generally quits its hiding place about the time of 

 twilight, and takes a regular circuit round the fields, skimming along 

 the ground in search of its food, which consists chiefly of Field-mice 

 and small birds. Like the rest of its tribe, it afterwards emits the 

 bones, feathers, hair, and other indigestible parts, at the mouth, in the 

 form of small pellets. A gentleman, on digging up a decayed pollard- 

 ash that had been frequented by Owls for many generations, found at 

 the bottom many bushels of this kind of refuse. Sometimes these 

 Owls, when they have satisfied their appetite, will, like Dogs, hide the 

 remainder of their meat. Mr. Stackhouse, of Pendarvis in Cornwall, 

 informed me, that in his pleasure-grounds he often found Shrew-mice 

 lying in the gravel- walk, dead, but with no external wound. He con- 

 jectured that they had been struck by the Owls, in mistake for Field- 

 mice ; and that these birds, afterwards finding their error, in having 

 destroyed animals to which they have a natural antipathy, had left 

 them untouched. This gentleman discovered, by accident, another of 

 the antipathies of White Owls. A Pig having been newly killed, he 

 offered a tame Owl a bit of the liver; but nothing, he says, could 

 exceed the contemptuous air with which the bird spurned it from 

 him. 



The Mogul and Kalmuck Tartars pay almost divine honors to the 

 White Owl ; for they attribute to it the preservation of Jenghis Khan, 

 the founder of their empire. That prince, with a small army, happened 

 to be surprised and put to flight by his enemies. Compelled to seek 

 concealment in a coppice, an Owl settled on the bush under which he 

 was hidden. This circumstance induced his pursuers not to search 

 there, since they supposed it impossible that that bird would perch 

 where any man was concealed. The Prince escaped ; and thenceforth 

 his countrymen held the White Owl sacred, and every one wore a 

 plume of feathers of this bird on his head. To this day, the Kalmucks 

 continue the custom on all their great festivals; and some of the tribes 

 have an idol, in the form of an Owl, to which they fasten the real legs 

 of the Bird. 



The Screech Owl is well known in all parts of England, from the 

 circumstance of its frequenting churches, old houses, and uninhabited 

 buildings; where it continues during the day, and whence, in the 

 evening, it ranges abroad in quest of food. It received its name from 

 the singular cry which it emits during its flight. In its repose it makes 

 a blowing kind of noise, like the snoring of a man. The female forms 

 no nest ; but deposits her eggs, generally five or six in number, in the 

 holes of decayed walls, or under the eaves of old buildings. While the 

 young-ones are in the nest, the male and female alternately sally out 

 in quest of food. They are seldom absent more than five niinu*fti^ 



