22 Wayne, Breeding Season of the Barn Owl in S. Carolina. [j^ 



towards them, until within a few feet, when the parent bird seeing 

 me, flew quickly towards the window, touched the frame of the 

 broken panes, and glided silently through the aperture. I could 

 not even afterwards observe the course of its flight. The young 

 were three in number, and covered with down of a rich cream 

 color. They raised themselves on their legs, appeared to swell, 

 and emitted a constant hissing sound, somewhat resembling that 

 of a large snake w^hen angry. They continued thus without alter- 

 ing their position, during the whole of our stay, which lasted about 

 twenty minutes. They were on a scattered parcel of bits of straw, 

 and surrounded by a bank made of their ejected pellets. Very 

 few marks of their excrements were on the floor, and they were 

 beautifully clean. A Cotton Rat, newly caught, and still entire, 

 lay beside them, and must have been brought from a distance of 

 several miles, that animal abounding in the rice-fields, none of 

 which, I believe, are nearer than three or four miles. After making 

 some arrangements with the Negro man who kept the house, we 

 returned home. The eggs from which these young owls had been 

 hatched must have been laid six weeks before this date, or about 

 the 15th of September. 



"On the 25th of November they had grown much in size, but 

 none of the feathers had yet made their appearance, excepting the 

 primaries, which were now about an inch long, thick, full of blood, 

 and so tender that the least pressure of the fingers might have 

 burst them. As the young grow more and more, the parents 

 feed and attend to them less frequently than when very small, 

 coming to them in the night only with food. This proves the cau- 

 tion of these birds in avoiding danger, and the faculty which the 

 young possess of supporting abstinence in this middle state of their 

 growth. 



"On the 7th of December I visited the Owls in company with 

 my friend John Bachman. We found them much grown; indeed, 

 their primaries were well out; bvit their back and breast, and all 

 their lower parts, were still thickly covered with down. 



" On the 6th of January I again saw them, but one of the young 

 was dead, although in good condition. I was surprised that their 

 food still continued to be composed entirely of small quadrupeds, 

 and principally of the rat mentioned above. 



