54 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



south, they were at one time plentiful in the valley so 

 named, but that fire exterminated them. It takes the 

 porcupine population years to creep back over a few miles 

 of country in which they have been destroyed, and 

 similarly in bird life the distribution of a species is usually 

 decided by habits. The wanderer may be world wide ; 

 the stay-at-home is generally limited to one region, or, 

 if it appears in many regions, it differs widely in each as 

 the result of long residence. The barn owl is an exception 

 in that it is universally distributed with very little 

 variation — the why and the wherefore of which we can 

 only attribute to its extreme antiquity. 



This is a lovable bird, and probably the least destructive 

 of the four. It lives chiefly on rodents, except where 

 they are unobtainable, when naturally it turns its attention 

 in other directions. An individual may learn that young 

 pheasants outside the coops are easily caught at day-break 

 and dusk, and are good eating. Thus occasional specimens 

 may acquire bad habits, and some gamekeepers are ready 

 enough to seize upon such exceptions as representatives 

 of the race ; but the game killing barn owl is the exception 

 rather than the rule. Tawny owls are astir earlier in 

 the evening and later after day-break than barn owls, 

 and, therefore, they are more likely to acquire the habit 

 of visiting rearing pens, and to learn the ease and luxury 

 by which a living may thus be earned. The barn owl 

 is more strictly nocturnal than the tawny owl ; I have 

 known the last named to hunt in broad daylight when they 

 have young to feed, but, except during periods of extreme 

 frost, I have never seen a barn owl astir at day-time unless 

 flushed. Even then he seems much embarrassed, and will 

 settle almost immediately, clearly as much out of his 

 element as is the blackbird disturbed from its roosting 

 place by the poacher's bull's-eye lantern, and heard to 

 settle with faltering flight among the twigs of a bush 

 near by, far too slender to support its weight. 



