24f ACCIPITRES. STRIGID^. 



would alight on the topmost boughs, and after 

 sitting quiet awhile, resume their flight and their 

 cry together. At other times, one or two are 

 heard, and dimly seen by the light of the moon, 

 slowly flying over the pasture in a large circle. 

 Its motion is noiseless in itself, but almost always 

 accompanied by this monotonous cry; it usually 

 flies high, but remarkably slowly. I had been 

 informed that it sometimes screams shrilly when 

 flying, but this I had not heard, until I had 

 been familiar with the bird in this way, for more 

 than a year. But one night as I lay awake at 

 Content, in St. Elizabeth's, I heard a harsh screech 

 twice repeated, which I at once suspected to be the 

 voice of the White Owl, and presently this was con- 

 firmed by the kep, kep, of one which was evidently 

 flying round the house, and continued for some time 

 within hearing. And one evening, about three 

 months afterwards, just as the west horizon had 

 faded from its glowing gold to a dull ruddy hue, 

 I heard a Screech Owl flying from the hill as usual 

 over the pasture ; when it was overhead, but at a 

 height of perhaps three hundred feet, it suddenly 

 intermitted the kep, kep, by a loud scream ; then 

 kep, kep again, and soon another scream, and by 

 and by another, as it slowly flew along. 



This Owl does not seem to aflTect the deep forests, 

 although it haunts shady places in the vicinity of 

 estates and open grounds, doubtless because in such 

 places its prey abounds. Among these groves 

 it is sometimes seen flitting on soft and silent wing 

 during the day, when it does not usually cry. 



