BARN-OWL. 149 
Islands. The question of the number of subspecies into which the Barn- 
Owl must be subdivided is far too complicated a one to be discussed here. 
Although the Barn-Owl is not found in any other part of the world in 
sucha high latitude as the British Islands, it is nevertheless the commonest 
Owl we have. In the daytime it is not often seen; it is preeminently a 
nocturnal bird. When the sun rises it retires to its hiding-place, which 
is generally the locality chosen in which to rear its young. This is 
generally a hole, sometimes on the top of an old pollard willow, often in 
the hollow of the trunk of an old oak, as often in some crevice in an ivy- 
grown ruin ; and it is fond of nesting amongst the Pigeons in the farm-yard 
dove-cote. Other favourite places are the top of a wall under the roof of 
the barn, or in the belfry of the church; but occasionally it may be found 
away from its nest in the dark recesses of a thick pine-plantation. It 
sleeps all day; and if on a flat stone, where it cannot grasp its perching- 
place, it sleeps bolt upright, often on one leg. If it is disturbed and driven 
from its hiding-place, it seeks the nearest shelter from the sunlight, and 
all the little birds in the neighbourhood, conscious of its powerlessness to 
catch them im the daytime, fly after it and mob it most impertinently. 
But when the dusk of evening comes on, and “impudence ” has gone to 
bed, “dignity ” comes out from his hiding-place, and woe be to any little 
bird roosting in an exposed position on his beat! There is something 
weird in the silent flight of the Barn-Owl, as with measured but noiseless 
beat of wing he crosses and recrosses your path, looking unnaturally 
large in the half-hght, or skims before you over the grass, ever and 
anon dropping down on some unfortunate mouse or rat, which he bears 
away in triumph to his lair, quickly returning to quarter the ground 
regularly backwards and forwards over his favourite hunting-fields. How 
successful he is is amply proved by the bushels of pellets which he dis- 
gorges in or under the nesting-place. My friend Mr. Frank Norgate 
once found twenty dead rats in a Barn-Owl’s nest, all fresh killed! And 
yet the stupid farmer will slay him if he can, and nail his body against the 
barn-door, under the delusion that he will eat his pigeons! Both the 
gamekeeper and his master are his sworn foes, one generally as ignorant of 
his usefulness and as indifferent to his fate as the other. Norgate tells 
me that he has generally found by an examination of the pellets that each 
bird seems to have his favourite food. Those under one nest are often all 
mice, those under another all rats. Each pellet contains the indigestible 
remains of two, and sometimes of three animals. The wing-cases of beetles 
are also found in the pellets, but very seldom. Out of seven hundred 
pellets of this Owl, which were carefully examined by Dr. Altum, remains 
were found of 16 bats, 2513 mice, 1 mole, and 22 birds, of which 19 were 
sparrows. The Barn-Owl is undoubtedly the farmer’s best friend. Out 
of between thirty and forty nests which Norgate has had an opportunity 
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