86 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



owls this one is quite peculiar in its habit of rather 

 courting than flying from the haunts of man ; for 

 though it is in the ruins of temples it is also to be 

 found in the thick foliage near villages and towns, 

 and has even been noticed flying about in the 

 very heart of Cairo in the Ezbekeir Gardens, as 

 recorded by Mr. J. H. Gurney in his Rambles of 

 a Naturalist — and the habit of attaching itself to 

 human habitations is universal wherever it is met 

 the world round. 



The Barn Owl has a custom which those who 

 suffer from indigestion may well envy, and that is 

 its power of disgorging, after every meal, all the 

 indigestible portions of its dinner in a compact, 

 round, hard pellet, about the size of a nut : and 

 from under some of its roosting -places great 

 basketsfull of these pellets have been collected, 

 and men of science analyzing these have obtained 

 therefrom the most precise information as to the 

 diet of this much-persecuted bird. From such 

 observations the value of its services in our own 

 country were rather tardily recognised. But now 

 that it is established that nine-tenths of its food 

 consists of mice and rats, the law of the land has 

 been invoked to protect it. Lord Lilford writes 

 on the extraordinary appetite of young owls, that 



