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bird is a perennial resident with us, and frequents the same 
haunts for a succession of years. The whole plumage is beautifully 
clean and pure. Old birds become more white. It inhabits 
church steeples, old and deserted as well as existing buildings and 
ruins, chimneys, caves, barns, pigeon lofts, and, but very rarely, 
hollow trees. The nest is formed of a few sticks or twigs, lined 
with a little grass or straw, or (though but seldom) with hair or 
wool. The eggs are white and of a round shape, generally two 
or three, but sometimes as many as five or six in number. It 
displays considerable affection for its young; but when they are 
old enough, they are driven away from the nest to find a home 
elsewhere. Its food consists principally of moles, rats and mice, 
as many as fifteen of the latter have been found close to the nest 
of a single pair, part of the produce of one night’s forage, for 
doubtless others must have been eaten before morning. This 
bird has two modes of eating. If it has caught a mouse and is 
going to eat it, the mouse is first bitten across the back, so as to 
destroy all life ; it is then thrown up into the air in a most adroit 
manner, so as to fall with its head downwards. The Owl then 
catches it in its mouth, a smart toss of the head sends it down 
the throat with the exception of the tail, which hangs out of one 
side of the beak, and after rolling it about for two or three minutes, 
another gulp sends it wholly out of sight. But when it has to do 
with a bird, it eats it after the manner of the Hawks, partially 
plucking it and tearing it to pieces with its beak before eating it. 
The Owls, like the Falcons, return by the mouth the indigestible 
parts of the food, in the form of elongated pellets ; these are found 
in considerable numbers about the usual haunts of the birds, and 
examination of them, when softened with warm water, detects the 
nature of the food, the skulls are always voided whole. It is said 
to collect and hoard up food in its place of resort, as a provision 
against a day of scarcity. This Owl is an experienced fisher, and 
has been seen to drop quietly upon the water and return to its 
nest bearing in its claws a perch which it had captured. I once 
