54 STEIGID^E. 



during life, but when the animal is dead becomes circular. 

 The female is larger than her mate, and her colours are 

 somewhat darker. The nest of the Barn Owl is a rude 

 structure placed in the bird's daily haunt. The eggs vary 

 in number, and there are grounds for supposing that the 

 bird lays them at different periods, each brood after the 

 first being hatched (partially at least) by the heat of the 

 young birds already in being. That this is always the case 

 it would not be safe to assert, but that it is so sometimes 

 there can be no doubt. The young birds are ravenous 

 eaters and proverbially ugly; when craving food they make 

 a noise resembling a snore. The old birds are considered 

 by Sir W. Jardine to hoot ; and to this statement I am 

 inclined to assent, having heard a hoot proceed from a 

 certain grove which I know to be frequented by White 

 Owls, but where no other kind of Owl has been observed. 

 Most naturalists are, however, of opinion that they have 

 but two notes : the screech by night,' the purring hiss by 

 day. The Barn or White Owl is said to be the most 

 generally diffused of all the tribe, being found in almost 

 all latitudes of both hemispheres, and it appears to be 

 everywhere an object of terror to the ignorant. A bird of 

 the night, the time when evil deeds are done, it bespeaks 

 for itself an evil reputation ; making ruins and hollow 

 trees its resort, it becomes associated with the gloomiest 

 legends ; uttering its discordant note during the hours of 

 darkness, it is rarely heard save by the benighted traveller, 

 or by the weary watcher at the bed of the sick and dying ; 

 and who more susceptible of alarming impressions than 

 these ? It is therefore scarcely surprising that the common 

 incident of a Screech-Owl being attracted by a solitary 

 midnight taper to flutter against the window of a sick room, 

 and there to utter its melancholy wail, should for a time 

 shake the faith of the watcher, and, when repeated with the 

 customary exaggerations, should obtain for the poor harm- 

 less mouser the unmerited title of " harbinger of death." 



