128 STRIGID.E. 



rejected pellets, which are generally to be found in abund- 

 ance near any favourite place of their resort. That the Barn 

 Owl will sometimes capture fish is proved by a note in the 

 Compendium of the Ornithology of Great Britain by the late 

 Mr. John Atkinson of Leeds, which states that a gentleman 

 residing in Yorkshire, and well acquainted with ornithology, 

 having observed the scales of fishes in the nest of a pair, 

 which had built near a lake on his premises, he was induced 

 one moonlight night to watch their motions, when he was 

 agreeably surprised to see one of them plunge into the water, 

 and seize a perch, which it bore to its nest, whence the gen- 

 tleman took it. This note, it appears, was supplied by Mr. 

 Waterton of Walton Hall, in whom the Barn Owl has found 

 a most able and philanthropic advocate.* 



It is said of this Owl, that when satisfied it will hide the 

 remainder of its meat, like a dog. 



The Barn Owl lays from three to five eggs, which are oval 

 and white, measuring one inch six lines in length, and one 

 inch three lines in breadth. Young birds have been found 

 in July, they have also been found in September, and Mr. 

 Waterton, in his paper already referred to, mentions having 

 found young Owls in the nest so late in the year as Decem- 

 ber. A short notice by Mr. Blytli in the Field Naturalist's 

 Magazine, vol. i. page 187, serves to explain the circumstance 

 of the occurrence of young Owls over a space of time so un- 

 usually long. " A nest of the Barn Owl last summer in this 

 neighbourhood (Tooting) contained two eggs, and when these 

 were hatched two more were laid, which latter were probably 

 hatched by the warmth of the young birds ; a third laying 

 took place after the latter were hatched, and the nest at last 

 contained six young Owls of three different ages, which were 

 all reared." I have frequently been told by boys in the 

 country that they had found eggs and young birds at the 

 * Magazine of Natural History, vol. v. p. 9. 



