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174 THE TAWNY OWL. 
Though the tawny owl generally takes up its 
abode in dark and gloomy woods, still it occasionally 
settles very near the habitation of man. In a hollow 
sycamore, within a dozen yards of this house, there 
had been the nest of a tawny owl, time out of mind. 
Here the birds would have remained to this day, 
had not a colony of jackdaws, which I had encou- 
raged, by hanging up wooden boxes for them in the 
next tree, actually driven the owls away, in order 
that they might get possession of the hole. Before 
this misfortune befel them, a servant once robbed 
their nest, and placed the young ones in a willow 
cage, not far from the hollow tree. The parent 
birds brought food for their captive offspring ; but, 
not being able to get it through the bars of the 
cage, they left it on the ground on the outside. 
This food consisted of mice, rats, small birds, and 
fish, which I myself saw and examined. At the 
present time, I have a tawny owl, sitting on four 
eggs, in a large ash tree, close to a much-frequented 
summer-house. The male stays in a spruce fir 
tree, and hoots occasionally throughout the day. I 
have found, by dissecting the ejected bolus of this 
species, that is feeds copiously upon different sorts 
of beetles. 
Were I just now requested to find a hollow tree 
in the woods of the neighbourhood, I should say 
that it were useless to go in quest of one ; so eager 
have the proprietors been to put into their pockets 
the value of every tree. which was not ‘‘making 
money,” according to the cant phrase of modern 
wood-valuers. No bird has felt this felling of ancient 
