THE OWL KIND. 



491 



a tree, or the turret of some ruined castle. Its 

 nest is near three feet in diameter, and com- 

 posed of sticks, bound together by the fibrous 

 roots of trees, and lined with leaves on the in- 

 side. It lays about three eggs, which are 

 larger than those of a hen, and of a colour 

 somewhat resembling the bird itself. The 

 young ones are very voracious, and the parents 

 not less expert at satisfying the call of hunger. 

 The lesser owl of this kind never makes a nest 

 for itself, but always takes up with the old nest 

 of some other bird, which it has often been 

 forced to abandon. It lays four or five eggs ; 

 and the young are all white at first, but change 

 colour in about a fortnight. The other owls 

 in general build near the place where they 

 chiefly prey ; that which feeds upon birds, in 

 some neighbouring grove ; that which preys 

 chiefly upon mice, near some farmer's yard, 

 where the proprietor of the place takes care to 

 give it perfect security. In fact, whatever 

 mischief one species of owl may do in the 

 woods, the barn owl makes a sufficient recom- 

 pense for, by being equally active in destroy- 

 ing mice nearer home ; so that a single owl is 

 said to be more serviceable than half a dozen 

 cats, in ridding the barn of its domestic vermin. 



Mr. Constedt, in the Transactions of the Philosophi- 

 cal Society of Stockholm, gives a pleasing instance of their 

 attachment to their young. A young owl having quitted 

 the nest, in the month of July, was caught by his servants, 

 and shut up in a large hen-coop. The next morning a 

 young partridge was found lying dead hefore the door of 

 the coop. For fourteen successive nights the same cir- 



" In the year 1580," says an old writer, " at 

 Hallontide, an army of mice so over-run the 

 marshes near Southminster, that they eat up 

 the grass to the very roots. But at length a 

 great number of strange painted owls came 

 and devoured all the mice." The like hap- 

 pened again in Essex about sixty years after. 

 To conclude our account of these birds, 

 they are all very shy of man, and extremely 

 indocile and difficult to be tamed. The white 

 owl in particular, as Mr. Buffon asserts, cannot 

 be made to live in captivity ; I suppose he 

 means, if it be taken when old. " They 

 live," says he, " ten or twelve days in the 

 aviary where they are shut up ; but they re- 

 fuse all kind of nourishment, and at last die of 

 hunger. By day they remain without moving 

 upon the floor of the aviary ; in the evening 

 they mount on the highest perch, where 

 they continue to make a noise like a man 

 snoring with his mouth open. This seems 

 designed as a call for their old companions 

 without ; and, in fact, I have "seen several 

 others come to the call, and perch upon the 

 roof of the aviary, where they made the same 

 kind of hissing, and soon after permitted 

 themselves to be taken in a net."" 



cumstance was repeated ; plainly proving that it had been 

 brought there by the old owls as a provision for the young 

 one. Till the month of August, various articles of food, 

 as young partridges, moor-fowl, pieces of lamb, and other 

 substances, were regularly brought ; after which time the 

 parents discontinued their attendance. 



NO. 41 & 42. 



4C 



