878 



OWL. 



The nest is usually made in the hollows of trees, 

 in the ivy upon ruins, or in close bushes ; but some- 

 times also it hatches its brood in a barn or granary. 

 When it does this, the owner is very careful not to 

 have it disturbed, in consequence of the vast number 

 of mice which it captures for itself and its young. It 

 continues to feed there for a long time ; and if they 

 are taken and confined in the open air, so that the 

 old birds can visit them, they are sure to do so every 

 night, and to bring a plentiful supply of food along 

 with them. It is also very bold and furious in the 

 defence of them. It should seem that, notwithstand- 

 ing the largeness of its eyes, and the peculiar way in 

 which they are adapted for nocturnal vision, it gets 

 the first notice of its prey by the ear ; .for, when 

 there are owls in the neighbourhood, if the squeaking 

 of a mouse is tolerably well imitated, the owl will 

 soon make its appearance, and come so near as to be 

 easily shot. The shooting of it is a matter of wan- 

 tonness, however ; for its dead body is not of the 

 smallest use, neither is it very ornamental, though it 

 is sometimes displayed on the walls of rustic buildings. 



In whatever situation it rears its brood, it never 

 takes the trouble of making any formal nest, and 

 indeed it has but little time for such a purpose ; be- 

 cause the finding 1 of its own food, and of the vast 

 quantity which the young require, compels it to be 

 one of the hardest-working of birds. As is the case 

 with several of the other owls, this one not unfre- 

 quently appropriates to itself the nest of some other 

 bird, such, for instance, as that of a rook or a jay ; 

 but it is not understood to eject the original builder, 

 but simply to take possession after her purpose has 

 been served. They build rather late, and are under- 

 stood to do so because they thin the broods of various 

 other birds in making adequate provision for their 

 own. The pigeons are the birds which are under- 

 stood to suffer the most in this way ; and therefore 

 the owl is destroyed with considerable assiduity 

 whenever it makes its appearance in the presence of 

 pigeon-houses. When the young first make their 

 appearance, they are covered with light coloured 

 down, and are very ragged and ill-looking creatures ; 

 but, as they advance in age, they improve. When 

 first taken from the nest they are exceedingly shy, 

 but their appetite soon subdues them ; and if they 

 are fed from the hand, they are not long in knowing 

 their feeder, and come for their allowance with ex- 

 pressions of apparent gratitude. Even the old birds 

 may be tamed to a certain extent, and may be re- 

 tained in a captive state by removing the pinion of 

 one wing, which of course throws them off their 

 balance, and renders them incapable of escaping by 

 flight. Even then, however, they are apt to hide 

 themselves in holes, and not come abroad till the 

 evening, at which time the sounds which they utter 

 are exceedingly disagreeable, and altogether they are 

 both unseemly and filthy birds. 



In some respects too they must be considered as 

 birds associated with ruin, though not with desolation. 

 Places which are rank and foul suit them better than 

 such as are kept with neatness, because they afford 

 the largest supply of those animals upon which they 

 chiefly subsist. " The screech-owl shall dwell there," 

 is one of the pathetic and characteristic predictions 

 of ruin to places which at one time were fair to look 

 upon, and full of improvements, in a state of vigorous 

 health and active enjoyment. But still, dismal as is 

 the voice of this owl, and much as it is associated with 



darkness and gloom, and that exuberance of vegeta- 

 tion which mantles up deserted places in fertile places, 

 there is no doub.t that, from their numbers and there 

 wide distribution, they perform a very important part 

 in the economy of wild nature. 



THE BARN OWL, OR WHITE OWL (S. flammea). 

 This owl is as much a favourite as the preceding is 

 an object of aversion. It is, if not the most common, 

 at least the most familiar of all the British species ; 

 and it is very generally distributed, though some of 

 the foreign ones differ a little from that with which 

 the inhabitants of the country are so familiar in our 

 islands. It also occurs on the American continent, 

 though its appearance there is perhaps a little diffe- 

 rent from what it is in Europe, and its manners are not 

 so well known. It has frequently been confounded 

 with the brown or woodland owl, under the general 

 names of screech-owl, howlet, and various other names. 

 The following are the characters of it : the male bird 

 is about fourteen inches long, and three feet six inches 

 in the stretch of the wings ; the bill is of a whitish 

 horn-colour, and considerably longer than is usual 

 among its tribe. The space encircling the eyes is 

 remarkably concave, and the radiating feathers meet 

 in an elevated projecting ridge, bending from the 

 bill upwards. Situated between these there is a thick 

 tuft of bright tawny coloured feathers, which are 

 hardly visible, except the ridges are separated. The 

 face is white, encompassed by a narrow margin of 

 velvety feathers, very thickset, and of a reddish cream- 

 colour at their extremities, pure silvery white on their 

 under parts, and shafted with black ; the upper parts 

 of the body are of a bright tawny yellow colour, 

 richly adorned with whitish and pale purple dots, and 

 beautifully spotted here and there with larger drops 

 of white ; the feathers of the back and wing coverts 

 terminate in oblong spots of white, which are mar- 

 gined at the tip with black ; the head is large and 

 inflated ; the sides of the neck are pale yellow ochre, 

 sprinkled with small tints of dusky, and the first and 

 second quills are of the same colours, thinly barred, 

 and profusely sprinkled with dull purplish brown 

 touches ; the tail is two inches shorter than the tips 

 of the wings ; it is very slightly forked, of a pale 

 yellowish colour, barred with five bars of brown, and 

 thickly spotted with the same colour ; the entire 

 under parts are pure white, interspersed with little 

 round spots of black ; the thighs are similarly coloured, 

 and the legs, which are long, are thinly clothed with 

 short white down, which extends almost to the feet, 

 which are dull white and profusely tuberculated ; the 

 toes are thinly covered with white hairs ; the legs and 

 feet are of large dimensions, and uncommonly clumsy ; 

 the turn or shoulder of the wing is tinged with bright 

 orange brown. The old bird is whiter than the 

 young one ; some are without the spots of black on 

 the breast, and the under colour is pale yellow ; and 

 in others a pure white. 



We shall afterwards notice some of the particulars 

 which are supposed to constitute specific differences 

 between the European owl, and the owls, similar in 

 manners and not much different in tiny respect, which 

 are found in India, in Australia, and in some other 

 remote countries. But it does not appear that there 

 are any differences in the habits of the birds which 

 are worthy of attention. In some of those remote 

 countries they are mostly found in wild situations ; 

 but this may arise more from the nature of the coun- 

 try than from that of the birds. In Southern Africa, 



