134 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



from their claws to their bill, that the feet may be at 

 liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as they 

 are rising under the eaves. 



White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to 

 hoot at all: all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come 

 from the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore 

 and hiss in a tremendous manner ; and these menaces well 

 answer the intention of intimidating : for I have known a 

 whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining 

 the church-yard to be full of goblins and spectres. White 

 owls also often scream horribly as they fly along ; from 

 this screaming probably arose the common people's imagi- 

 nary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously 

 think attends the windows of dying persons. The plum- 

 age of the remiges of the wings of every species of 

 owl that I have yet examined is remarkably soft and pliant. 

 Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of these birds 

 should not make much resistance or rushing, that they 

 may be enabled to steal through the air unheard upon 

 a nimble and watchful quarry. 



While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to 

 mention what I was told by a gentleman of the county of 

 Wilts. As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash 

 that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he 

 discovered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he 

 could not account for. After some examination, he found 

 it was a congeries of the bones of mice (and perhaps of 

 birds and bats) that had been heaping together for ages, 

 being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many genera- 

 tions of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, 

 and feathers of what they devour, after the manner of 

 hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels 

 of this kind of substance. 



When brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as an 

 hen's egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full 

 year without any water. Perhaps the case may be the 

 same with all birds of prey. When owls fly they stretch 

 out their legs behind them as a balance to their large 

 heavy heads : for as most nocturnal birds have large eyes 



