26 



THE BARN OWL 



field voles, beetles, especially cockchafers and wireworm (larvae 

 of click-beetles), and grasshoppers, and though charged with occa- 

 sionally taking very young birds, the kestrel is perfectly innocuous 

 to game and poultry, its food consisting almost exclusively of mice, 

 grasshoppers, coleopterous insects and their larvae. 



The BARN OWL (Strix ftammea), Fig. 23, is included in the family 

 Strigidae, which in itself represents the nocturnal section of the 

 order of Raptores or birds of prey. Its length is about 14 in., 



FIG. 23. THE WHITE OR BARN OWL WITH RAT (LOWER FIGURE), AND NIGHT- 

 JAR WITH MOTH (UPPER FIGURE). 



with very long wings reaching below the tail. The legs are long 

 and thin, covered with downy feathers and with long claws ; 

 there are no tufts on the head, which is light buff in colour. The 

 underpart of the body is white, and of the back buff, with bars 

 and spots of blackish grey. The inside of the wings is white, 

 the back and exterior of the wings vary somewhat in colour in dif- 

 ferent specimens. The nest is of the most rudimentary description 

 and made in hollow trees, holes in rocks, ruins or old buildings, 

 barns and church steeples. The eggs are pure white and about 

 ij in. in length and laid towards the end of April in number 

 from three to six. Sometimes eggs are laid after the first brood 



