THE BARN OWL. 283 



said to have been formerly plentiful about The Hirsel, 

 Kimmerghame, and Polwarth Kirk.^ 



From numerous inquiries made in every district of Ber- 

 wickshire, the Barn Owl does not appear to have been 

 known to breed anywhere in the county for upwards of 

 twenty years. At the present time (April 1888) all its old 

 nesting-places on the banks of the Tweed, Whitadder, and 

 Blackadder, and in ruins, such as Corsbie Tower, are occu- 

 pied by colonies of Jackdaws ; so it is very probable that 

 the great increase of these birds in Berwickshire within 

 the last five-and-twenty or thirty years has been one of the 

 causes of the almost complete extinction of this species. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that while the Barn Owl has 

 nearly disappeared, its congener, the Tawny Owl {Strix aluco), 

 has seemingly suffered no diminution in numbers, if it 

 has not increased, within the period mentioned ; for it is a 

 common bird in all our woods, where its loud hooting may 

 be often heard during the night in autumn and winter. 

 But the latter has not been subjected to the same struggle 

 for existence as the former, for it lays its eggs in a hole 

 in a tree, or in a squirrel's old nest in the woods, which are 

 not liable to be invaded by colonies of Jackdaws, like the 

 crevices in the rocky cliffs where the Barn Owl was 

 wont to breed. It is also probable that the Arctic Winter 

 of 1860-61^ killed many of the Barn Owls then existing 

 in the county, for they are much more susceptible to cold 

 than the Tawny Owl.^ 



No Barn Owls have been seen for many years in some 

 districts of Berwickshire where, formerly, they abounded. 



1 Information from Mr. Smith, gamekeeper, Duns Castle. 



2 During Christmas week of the winter of 1860-61 the snow lay thickly over 

 the whole county, and the thermometer ranged from 2° to 7° below zero. For 

 three weeks in succession the Tweed at Milne Graden was frozen over, the ice 

 being from 7 to 10 inches Va.\ck.—Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. v. pp. 234, 235. 



3 See Seebohm's British Birds, vol. i. p. 148. 



