12 THE BARN OWL. 
fast asleep. Buffon and Bewick err (no doubt; 
unintentionally) when they say, that the barn owl 
snores during its repose. What they took for 
snoring was the ery of the young birds for food. 
I had fully satisfied myself on this score some 
years ago. However, in December 1823, I was 
much astonished to hear this same snoring kind 
of noise, which had been so common in the month 
of July. On ascending the ruin, I found a brood 
of young owls in the apartment. 
Upon this ruin is placed a perch, about a foot 
from the hole at which the owls enter. Some- 
times, at mid-day, when the weather is gloomy, 
you may see an owl upon it, apparently enjoying 
the refreshing diurnal breeze. This year (1831) 
a pair of barn owls hatched their young, on the 
7th of September, in a sycamore tree, near the 
old ruined gateway. 
If this useful bird caught its food by day*, in- 
stead of hunting for it by night, mankind would 
- have ocular demonstration of its utility in thinning 
the country of mice; and it would be protected, 
and encouraged, everywhere. It would be with us 
what the ibis was with the Egyptians. When it 
has young, it will bring a mouse to the nest about 
every twelve or fifteen minutes. But, in order to 
have a proper idea of the enormous quantity of 
mice which this bird destroys, we must examine 
the pellets which it ejects from its stomach in 
* Though the barn owl usually hunts during the night, still I have 
repeatedly seen it catching mice in the daytime, even when the sun 
shone bright.—C. W. 
