256 WHITE OR BARN OWL. 



bad character from the supposed destruction to 

 young birds and game, &c. but, so far as we 

 have observed, without reason ; and the occasional 

 seizure of some young bird, hare, or rabbit, from 

 the preserve, is amply recompensed by checking 

 the multiplication of the mice, shrews, and cam- 

 panols, which, when numerous, are extremely 

 destructive to many kinds of vegetation. Depre- 

 dations on the pigeon cot seem equally without 

 foundation ; jackdaws often enter the houses 

 for the purpose of breeding, but at the same 

 time feast on the pigeon's eggs, and for this, or 

 the depredations of rats, which commonly also 

 abound, has the White Owl been blamed. Our 

 valuable correspondent, Mr Thompson, mentions 

 a case where their forbearance was well exempli- 

 fied: in a dove-cot in. or near Belfast, a pair of 

 White Owls had their nest, " this contained four 

 young, which were brought up at the same time 

 with many pigeons, the nests containing the latter 

 were on every side, but the Owls never attempted 

 to molest either the parents or their young/' * They 

 are, in fact, rather protectors than depredators, for, 

 if breeding themselves in the vicinity, the rats will 

 be seriously thinned to supply food for the young. 

 In the instance above alluded to, " never less than 

 six, and so many as fifteen mice and young rats 

 have been observed on the shelf beside the nest, 

 and this was the number left after the night's 

 * Magazine of Zool. and Bot. ii. o. 178. 



