310 BARN OWL. 



an old hollow stub whicih stood near a cracker's shanty just south of Haulover Canal. It 

 is true, that there were only two houses for twenty-five miles, on that side of Indian River 

 and, as these were both occupied, the birds could not well find a suitable building in which 

 to place their nests, even if they had been so inclined, but I think that breeding in cavities 

 of trees or rocks must have been the original manner of nesting many years ago, while Au- 

 dubon even found their eggs on the ground on some islands off Texas. The author just 

 mentioned also states that they inhabited the old fort at St. Augustine, which is, without 

 doubt, an established breeding ground with them for I found them inhabiting the place 

 during my first visit to the Ancient Cvty, in 1869, and Mr. L. L. Thaxter obtained a young- 

 bird, about the first of April, the same year, which, although I'uUy fledged, was scarcely 

 able to fly. 



It will be remembered that this fort of which I speak, is very old for it was erected 

 by the order of the Spanish Governer, Menendez, about the year 15G5; therefore, it is one 

 of the most time-honored structures of the kind in the United States. The walls are quite 

 thick and a few years before my visit, a secret cell was discovered in them which, not only 

 contained instruments of torture, but also the remains of a human skeleton; suggestive rel- 

 ics of the dark days of Spanish tyranny. Adjoining this gloomy inner prison, is a larger 

 apartment, celebrated as being the cell in which the Seminole Chief, Wild Cat, was con- 

 fined and from which he escaped by forcing his way through a window, so small, that, 

 previous to his attempt, no one supposed that it was possible for a human being to gain an 

 exit by it. This orifice forms a place of ingress and egress for the Barn Owls. How long 

 these birds have used this opening as a passage to their homes is impossible to conjecture 

 but, beyond a doubt, the ancestors of the present occupants heard the groans of the French 

 Huguenots, who were confined in the dungeon by Menendez some three hundred gears ago. 

 These Owls, through a succession of generations, must have become accustomed to the 

 sounds of war for the old fort has been besieged no less than seven times during the three 

 centuries of its existence but has been taken only once, when the stars and stripes replaced 

 the stars and bars during the last war. Another breeding place of these Owls is the Old 

 Lookout, a deserted ruin which stands on a small ishmd in the Mantanzas River, near the 

 inlet, and which was erected about the same year that the fort was built. 



The Barn Owls, though not noisy birds, are cajiable of producing cries so loud and 

 shrill that they may be termed shreaks; sounds w(dl calculated to awaken the fears of the 

 ignorant. In fict, the uneducated class of Florida look upon the White Owls, as they call 

 this species, with suspicious awe and will seldom disturb their nests or eggs. This spe- 

 cies appears to see well by day and probably the same remark may be applied t(j all Owls; 

 but this subject will be discussed to a greater length in the succeeding pages. I once start- 

 ed one from a bunch of live-oaks in Smithville, North Carolina. It rose some distance 

 from me, too far, in fact, to shoot, then, as if it wished to obtain a nearer view, turned to 

 fly back again, when a friend who was accompaning me, fired, but, us the bird was then 

 too far away for the shot to have any effect, it merely circled, and flew rapidly away, mov- 

 ing as steadily as does the Snowy or Great Horned in the daylight, for both of these birds 

 can then fly remarkably well. 



