BARN-OWL 269 



past I have observed a Barn-Owl about the harbour, but 

 this evening, during a dead cahxi, and while the moon was 

 shining very brightly, the bird appeared skimming rapidly 

 within a short distance of the water. Suddenly it dropped 

 towards the surface, and then instantly rising continued 

 its flight towards the Isle of Sheppey. Some minutes 

 afterwards it reappeared, repeated the same act, and 

 again and again went through ahnost precisely similiar 

 manoeuvres, until I had witnessed the occurrence perhaps 

 eight or ten times. It is remarkable that the bird was 

 never seen returning from the Isle of Sheppey ; it invari- 

 ably came from the direction of the opposite shore, so that 

 the moon cast a shadow behind instead of before, and 

 thus the fish could receive no notice of the approach of 

 the enemy until it was close upon them. I was at too 

 great a distance to see whether the bird's feet actually 

 touched the water, but there can be little doubt not only 

 that they did so, but that a fish was occasionally captured, 

 for sometimes the bird after stopping rose hurriedly, and 

 describing a wide circle in its flight, returned near the 

 same spot, and then made an apparently more successful 

 pounce. Once it flew across without making any stop, 

 but in this instance it returned sooner than usual. 

 Several men belonging to the ship also witnessed the 

 above, and one of them, a native of Kent, told me that 

 when he was a boy he used very often to find fish-bones 

 in a Barn-Owl's nest, but although his assertion may be 

 open to doubt, the account given by various authors have 

 long since established the fact that owls do occasionally 

 prey upon fish. I myself have found the remains of fish 

 in the stomach of the Tawny Owl." — H. L. Saxby, 

 Sheerness, October 9, 1862 {Zoologist, 1862, p. 8281). 

 Barn-Owl and Bat. — "The following instance of 



