116 Owls. 



may plead that owls do eat birds, and, as I have 

 just stated, so they do ; but if he allows his 

 young hand-reared-game birds to be out of their 

 coops at the time that owls are abroad in search 

 of food, surely the blame for losing them attaches 

 justly to him, and not to the tempted owl. I 

 need hardly say that wild bred game-birds, whilst 

 small enough to be attacked by the barn owl, are 

 carefully stowed away under their mother's wings 

 at the time when the 'bird of night' is on the 

 quest of prey. I have examined hundreds of the 

 pellets cast up by this species, in and under 

 their nesting-places, and never discovered either 

 bones or feathers of any game-bird, the castings 

 consisting mainly of the fur and bones of small 

 mammalia, with feathers and skulls of seed-eating 

 birds, and, occasionally, a few bones and scales 

 of small fishes." 



As showing the infinite amount of good done 

 by the barn owl, he adds : 



" A. young owl of this species, which I kept 

 as a pet in my school days, on one occasion, 

 when about half-grown, swallowed nine full-grown 

 house mice in rapid succession till the tail of the 

 ninth stuck out of his mouth, and he could do 

 no more ; but within three hours he was hungry 

 again, and was barely satisfied with four more of 

 the little quadrupeds. With this appetite and 

 capacity for stowage the numbers of four-footed 

 vermin supplied by a pair of barn owls to a 

 brood of six or seven ravening youngsters may 



