168 WHITE OWLS. 



live) to hoot at all*; all that clamorous hooting 

 appears to me to come from the wood kinds. The 

 white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a tremen- 

 dous 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 church-yard to be full of goblins and spectres. 

 White owls also often scream horribly as they fly 

 along : from this screaming, probably, arose the 

 common people's imaginary species of screech-owl, 

 which they superstitiously think attends the windows 

 of dying persons. The plumage of the remiges of 

 the wings, of every species of owl that I have yet 

 examined, is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps 

 it may be necessary that the wings of these birds 

 should not make much resistance or rushing, that 

 they may be enabled to steal through the air unheard 

 upon a nimble and watchful quarry. 



While I am talking of owls, it may not be impro- 

 per to mention what I was told by a gentleman of 

 the county of Wilts : as they were grubbing a vast 

 hollow pollard ash, that had been the mansion of 

 owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a 

 mass of matter that at first he could not account 

 for. After some examination, he found that it was 

 a congeries of the bones of mice, (and perhaps of 

 birds and bats,) that had been heaping together for 

 ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of 

 many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up 

 the bones, fur, and feathers of what they devour, 

 after the manner of hawks. He believes, he told 

 me, that there were bushels of this kind of sub- 

 stance. 



* White owls do hoot I have shot them in the act. They 

 also hiss and scream ; but at night, when not alarmed, hooting 

 is the general cry. W. J. 



