TAWNY OWL. 265 



eggs is made, a general smoothing of the bottom 

 of place of deposit, with the lining of a few slender 

 sticks, straws, or grass. The eggs are from three 

 to four in number, larger than any of the British 

 Owls of a nearly similar size, nearly round, and 

 pure white. (See Plate XXV. fig. 3.) 



The food of this Owl is more indiscriminate 

 than that of our two more common species, the 

 "White and Long-eared. It is a powerful bird, and 

 will take young hares and rabbits ; we have found 

 the bones of one of them in castings, which, though 

 we cannot affirm certainly, we are inclined to 

 think were cast by this bird ; rats and the arvicolcn 

 are very favourite food, and the most common ; 

 small birds are also taken, and the specimen from 

 which we made the drawings for the illustration 

 of the characters, contained the remains of a thrush. 

 Fish are proved also to form a part of the prey of 

 this bird. Mr Bloxam and Mr Bree both notice 

 it, the latter writes, " Some years since, several* 

 young Owlst were taken from the nest, and placed 

 in a yew tree in the Rectory Garden here ; in this 

 situation the parent birds repeatedly brought them 

 live fish, bull-heads, (cottits gobw^) Loach, (colitis 

 larlatula.) Since the above period, I have on 

 more than one occasion found the same fish, either 



* London's Mag. of Nat. Hist. vii. p. 146. 

 t London's Mag. of Na*. Hist. i. p. 179. 



