NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE I2/ 



to run) they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round 

 the hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which 

 seem to be their only food. In this irregular country we can 

 stand on an eminence and see them beat the fields over like a 

 setting dog, and often drop down in the 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 constantly 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 ; 1 all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come 

 from the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and 

 hiss in a tremendous manner ; and these menaces well answer 

 the intention of intimidating ; for I have known a whole vil- 

 lage 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 proba- 

 bly 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 improper 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 



