BAEN OWL. 39: 



services it renders to man, will not allow it to be killed 

 on their property, but a great many are nevertheless annually 

 destroyed, being* often captured in the daytime in barns and 

 other places which they are known to frequent ; I have seen 

 as many as fifteen in a bird-stuffer^s shop in May, all 

 of which had been recently received. The Barn Owl takes up 

 its quarters about farm buildings and dwellings, because there, 

 and in the neighbouring fields, it can best find its usual food, 

 which consists almost entirely of rats and mice ; when it does 

 take birds, they are generally Sparrows. Waterton, in his 

 article on ' The Barn Owl and the benefits it confers on man,^ 

 which should be read by all interested in the country, remarks, 

 ' If this useful bird caught its food by day instead of hunting 

 for it by night, mankind would have ocular demonstration of 

 its utility in thinning the country of mice, and it would be 

 protected and encouraged everywhere. . . . When it has 

 young it will bring a mouse to the nest about every twelve or 

 fifteen minutes.^ My friend Mr. J. Whitaker has recorded 

 an instance of its good ofiices in ridding dovecots of rats. 

 [Birds of NottingJiamsliire^ pp. 12, 13.) 



Dm*ing the height of summer, when twilight lasts only 

 a few hours, the Barn Owl is forced to prolong its foraging 

 far mto the houi's of daylight, and I once saw one fly over- 

 head as late as ten o'clock on a bright sunny morning*. 



The Barn Owl rears two, and sometimes three, broods in 

 the season ; the second lot of eggs being laid before the first 

 brood are flown, nesting goes on continuously through the 

 summer, and young birds are sometimes hatched very late in 

 the autumn; one under the Messrs. Matthews'* observation was 

 not fully fledged before the end of November. 



In addition to its well-known screech, and the call-note 

 ' Jceewak,' the Barn Owl also utters a hoot, and, notwith- 

 standing all chat has been written to the contrary, I am 

 confident that this is the case. I have had ample opportunities 

 of listening to the cries of this species and the Tawaiy Owl, 



