BIRDS OF PREY. 179 



these owls when captured. The food of the barn- 

 owl is mice, and almost exclusively so, and it need 

 not be said, therefore, that it is not only a harmless 

 bird, but an eminently useful one. 



The Long-eared or Cat-owl is a well-known spe- 

 cies that spends the day in a hollow tree or in dense 

 evergreens. The cry at night has been fancied to 

 resemble that of a cat, hence one of its common 

 names. Nuttall speaks of the cry as plaintive or a 

 " hollow moaning," adding that when many birds are 

 together the sound is " troublesome." We should 

 think it might be. 



The following from Warren's " Birds of Pennsyl- 

 vania" is not only instructive but suggestive. A cor- 

 respondent informs the author that 



" For over twenty years I have had congregated in my lawn from 

 fifty to seventy-five owls. They are peaceable and quiet; only on 

 rare occasions would you know one was about. On dull days and 

 foggy evenings they were flying about in all directions. Never in 

 all that time have I missed any poultry or have they inflicted any 

 injury on anything of value. 



" The first I noticed of their presence was the discovery of quite 

 a pile of what appeared to be mice hair and bones, and on investi- 

 gation found the Norway fir was the roosting-place of to me at that 

 time a vast number of owls. They had ejected the bolus of hair 

 and bones apparently of an army of tree-eating destructive mice, 

 aiding the fruit-grower against one of the worst and most inveterate 

 enemies. . . . Their merits would fill sheets, the demerits nil." 



Dr. Warren remarks, 



" Unhappily, during the past four or five years there has been a 

 rapid decrease in the number of these birds in many localities in 

 Pennsylvania; this diminution, I judge, is largely due to the fact 

 that the stuffed heads of these harmless and beneficial owls make an 

 attractive ornament for lovely woman's head-wear." 



