164 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an 

 hour together, and have found that they return to their nest, the 

 one or the other of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting at 

 the same time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of 

 as far as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece 

 of address, which they show when they return loaded, should not, 

 I think, be passed over in silence. As they take their prey with 

 their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their nest ; but, as 

 the feet are necessary in their ascent under the tiles, they con- 



THE BARN OWL (Strix flammea). 



stantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, and shift the mouse 

 from their claws to their bill, that their feet may be at liberty to 

 take hold of the plate on the wall as they are rising under the eaves. 

 White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot at 

 all ; l all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the 

 wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a tre- 

 mendous manner ; and these menaces well answer the intention of 

 intimidating ; for I have known a whole village up in arms on such 

 an occasion, imagining the churchyard to be full of goblins and 

 spectres. White owls also often scream horribly as they fly 



