WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 89 



moutli, in the form of small round cakes, which are often found in the 

 empty buildings it frequents. During its repose it is said to make a 

 blowing noise, resembling the snoring of a man.* 



It is distinguished in England by various names, the Barn Owl, the 

 Church Owl, Gillihowlet and Screech Owl. In the lowlands of Scot- 

 land it is universally called the Hoolet. 



The White or Barn Owl is fourteen inches long, and upwards of three 

 feet six inches in extent ; bill a whitish horn color, longer than is usual 

 among its tribe ; space surrounding each eye remarkably concave, the 

 radiating feathers meeting in a high projecting ridge, arching from the 

 bill upwards ; between these lies a thick tuft of bright tawny feathers, 

 that are scarcely seen unless the ridges be separated ; face white, sur- 

 rounded by a border of narrow, thickset, velvety feathers, of a reddish 

 cream color at the tip, pure silvery white below, and finely shafted with 

 black ; whole upper parts a bright tawny yellow, thickly sprinkled 

 with whitish and pale purple, and beautifully interspersed with larger 

 drops of white, each feather of the back and wing-coverts ending in an 

 oblong spot of white, bounded by black ; head large, tumid ; sides of the 

 neck pale yellow ochre, thinly sprinkled with small touches of dusky ; 

 primaries and secondaries the same, thinly barred and thickly sprinkled 

 with dull purplish brown ; tail two inches shorter than the tips of the 

 wings, even, or very slightly forked, pale yellowish, crossed Avith five 

 bars of brown, and thickly dotted with the same ; whole lower parts pure 

 white, thinly interspersed with small round spots of blackish ; thighs the 

 same, legs long, thinly covered with short white down, nearly to the feet, 

 which are of a dirty white, and thickly warted ; toes thinly clad with 

 white hairs ; legs and feet large and clumsy. The ridge or shoulder of 

 the wing is tinged with bright orange brown. The aged bird is more 

 white ; in some, the spots of black on the breast are wanting, and the 

 color below a pale yellow ; in others a pure white. 



The female measures fifteen inches and a half in length, and three 

 feet eight inches in extent ; is much darker above ; the lower parts 

 tinged with tawny, and marked also with round spots of black. One of 

 these was lately sent me, which was shot on the border of the meadows 

 below Philadelphia. Its stomach contained the mangled carcasses of 

 four large meadow mice, hair, bones and all. The common practice of 

 most Owls is, after breaking the bones, to swallow the mouse entire ; the 

 bones, hair, and other indigestible parts, are afterwards discharged from 

 the mouth, in large roundish dry balls, that are frequently met with in 

 such places as these birds usually haunt. 



As the Meadow-mouse is so eagerly sought after by those birds, and 

 also by great numbers of Hawks, which regularly, at the commencement 



* Bewick, i., p. 90. 



