146 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Fisher (1893b) reports that "of 39 stomachs examined, 1 contained 

 poultry (pigeon); 3, other birds; 17, mice; 17, other mammals; 4, 

 insects, and 7 were empty." He says that "in California the favorite 

 food of the Barn Owl is a species of pouched gopher. The pouched 

 gopher is one of the most destructive of this group, not only to vege- 

 table and grain crops, but also to shade and fruit trees. The depre- 

 dations in the latter case, which consist in the gnawing or entire 

 removal of the roots, are the most serious as they often result in the 

 total destruction of groves and orchards. All the stomachs and 

 pellets which we have received from that State contained the remains 

 of this animal." 



He quotes Dr. B. W. Evermann (1882) as follows: "Their food 

 consists principally of the gopher (Thomomys talpoides bulbivorus) 

 and the California ground squirrel (Spermophilus grammurus beecheyi), 

 both of which are so destructive to growing crops and fruit trees on 

 the Pacific coast. Other small mammals, particularly rabbits, birds, 

 and insects go to make up its bill of fare. * * * This owl is not 

 large, yet it must be a very strong and courageous bird, as evinced 

 by the fact that I have often found in its burrows portions of the 

 large jackass hare (Lepus californicus) or 'narrow-gauged mule,' as 

 popularly known in California." 



In the East the barn owl lives largely on rats and mice, and in the 

 South, where the cotton rat is abundant and very destructive, its 

 food, according to several observers, consists almost exclusively of 

 this rat. 



Dr. Fisher (1893b) examined the nesting site of a pair of barn 

 owls in one of the towers of the Smithsonian Building in Washington, 

 and says: 



"The floor was strewn with pellets, and the nest, which was in one 

 corner, was composed of a mass of broken-down ones. An examination 

 of 200 of these pellets gave a total of 454 skulls. Of these, 225 were 

 meadow mice; 2, pine mice; 179, house mice; 20, rats; 6, jumping 

 mice; 20, shrews; 1, star-nosed mole, and 1, vesper sparrow (Poocxtes 

 qramineus)." 



Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1926) reports that 56 pellets of the 

 barn owl, found in the attic of an old rice mill near Charleston, S. C, 

 contained the remains of the following mammals and birds: 2 small 

 shrews, 65 rice rats, 1 cotton rat, 7 red-winged blackbirds, 12 sora 

 rails, and 4 clapper rails. Commenting on this unusually large per- 

 centage of birds, Dr. A. K. Fisher wrote to him: "Although the matter 

 can not be proved, I am wondering whether rails and other birds that 

 in a way simulate the movements of rats and mice in the thick foliage 

 might not be taken by accident rather than intentionally by the Owls. 

 This theory would seem to have some weight because they do not 



