158 -WHITE OWLS. 



in silence. As they take their prey with their chiws, so they 

 carry it in their claws to their nest; but, as the feet are 

 necessary in their ascent under the tiles, they constantly 

 perch first on the roof of the chancel, and shift the mouse 

 from their claws to their bill, that the feet may be at liberty 

 to take hold of the plate on the wall, as they are risuig under 

 the eaves. 



White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to 

 hoot at all ;* all that clamorous hooting appears to me to 

 come from the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore 

 and hiss in a tremendous manner ; and these menaces well 

 answer the intention of intimidating ; for I have known a 

 w^hole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining tlie 

 churchyard to be full of goblins and spectres. White owla 

 also often scream horribly as they fly along : from this 

 screaming, probably, arose the common people's imaginary 

 species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously think 

 attends the windows of dying persons. The plumage of the 

 remiges of the wings of every species of owl that I have yet 

 examined, is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps it may be 

 necessary that the wings of these birds should not make 

 much resistance or rushing, that they may be able to steal 

 through the air unheard upon a nimble and watchful quarry. 



While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to 

 mention what I was told by a gentleman of the county of 

 Wilts. As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard ash, 

 that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he dis- 

 covered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he could 

 not account for. After some examination, he found that it 

 was a congeries of the bones of mice, (and perhaps of birds 

 and bats,) that had been heaping together for ages, being 

 cast up in pellets out of the crops of many generations of 

 inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and feathers 

 of what they devour, after the manner oi* hawks. He believes, 

 he told me, tliat there were bushels of this kind of substance. 



When brown owls hoot, their throats swell as big as an 

 hen's egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full 

 year without any water. Perhaps the case may be the sama 



• White owls do hoot — I have shot them in the act. They also hiss ant 

 tcream ; but at night, when not alarmed, hooting is the general cry. — W. J 



