56 



HISTORY OF BIRDS 



They seldom, however, are heard while 

 they are preying ; that important pursuit is 

 always attended with silence, as it is by no 

 means their intention to disturb or forewarn 



this he molested either the old birds or their young ones; 

 and I assured the housekeeper that I would take upon 

 myself the whole responsibility of all the sickness, woe, 

 and sorrow that the new tenants might bring into the 

 hall. She made a low courtesy; as much as to say," Sir, 

 I fall into your will and pleasure:" but I saw in her eye 

 that she had made up her mind to have to do with things 

 of fearful and portentous shape, and to hear many a mid- 

 night wailing in the surrounding woods. I do not think 

 that up to the day of this old lady's death, which took 

 place in her eighty-fourth year, she ever looked with 

 pleasure or contentment on the barn owl, as it flew round 

 the large sycamore trees which grow near the old ruined 

 gateway. 



" When I found that this first settlement on the gate- 

 way had succeeded so well, I set about forming other 

 establishments. This year I have had four broods, and 

 I trust that next season I can calculate on having nine. 

 This will be a pretty increase, and it will help to supply 

 the place of those which in this neighbourhood are still 

 unfortunately doomed to death by the hand of cruelty or 

 superstition. We can now always have a peep at the 

 owls, in their habitation on the old ruined gateway, 

 whenever we choose. Confident of protection, these 

 pretty birds betray no fear when the stranger mounts up 

 to their place of abode. I would here venture a surmise, 

 that the barn owl sleeps standing. Whenever we go to 

 look at it, we invariably see it upon the perch bolt up- 

 right, and often with its eyes closed, apparently fast 

 asleep. Buflbn and Bewick err (no doubt unintention- 

 ally) when they say that the barn owl snores during its 

 repose. What they took for snoring was the cry 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 afoot from the 

 hole at which the owls enter. Sometimes, 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 17th of September, in a sycamore tree near the 

 old ruined gateway. 



" If this useful bird caught its food by day, instead of 

 hunting for it by night, mankind would have ocular de- 

 monstration of its utility in thinning the country of 

 mice, and it would be protected and encouraged every- 

 where. 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 the place of 

 its retreat. Every pellet contains from four to seven 

 skeletons of mice. In sixteen months from the time 

 that the apartment of the owl .on the old gateway was 

 cleaned out, there has been a deposit of a bushel of pellets. 



" The barn owl sometimes carries ofi'rats. One even- 

 ing I was sitting under a shed, and killed a very large 

 rat as it was coming out of a hole, about ten yards from 

 where I was watching it. I did not go to take it up, 

 hoping to get another shot. As it lay there, a barn owl 

 pounced upon it, and flew away with it. 



"This bird has been known to catch fish. Some years 

 ago, on a fine evening in the month of July, long before 

 it was dark, as I was standing on the middle of the 

 bridge, and minuting the owl by my watch, as she 



those little animals they wish to surprise. 

 When their pursuit has been successful, they 

 soon return to their solitude, or to their young, 

 if that be the season. If, however, they find 



brought mice into her nest, all on a sudden she dropped 

 perpendicular into the water. Thinking that she had 

 fallen down in epilepsy, my first thoughts were to go and 

 fetch the boat ; but before I had well got to the end of 

 the bridge, I saw the owl rise out of the water with a 

 fish in her claws, and take it to the nest. This fact is 

 mentioned by the late much revered and lamented Mr. 

 Atkinson of Leeds, in his compendium, in a note, under 

 the signature of W., a friend of his, to whom I had com- 

 municated it in a few days after I had witnessed it. 



" I cannot make up my mind to pay any attention to 

 the description of the amours of the owl by a modern 

 writer ; at least the barn owl plays off* no buffooneries 

 here, such as those which he describes. An owl is an 

 owl all the world over, whether under the influence of 

 Momus, Venus, or Diana. 



" When farmers complain that the barn owl destroys 

 the eggs of their pigeons, they lay the saddle on the. 

 wrong horse. They ought to put it on the rat. Formerly 

 I could get very few young pigeons till the rats were 

 excluded effectually from the dovecot. Since that took 

 place, it has produced a great abundance every year, 

 though the barn owls frequent it, and are encouraged all 

 around it. The barn owl merely resorts to it for repose 

 and concealment. If it were really an enemy to the 

 dovecot, we should see the pigeons in commotion as soon 

 as it begins its evening flight; but the pigeons heed it 

 not: whereas if the sparrow hawk or windhover should 

 make their appearance, the whole community would be 

 up at once, proof sufficient that the barn owl is not looked 

 upon as a bad, or even a suspicious character, by the in- 

 habitants of the dovecot. 



" Till lately, a great and well-known distinction has 

 always been made betwixt the screeching and the hooting 

 of owls. The tawny owl is the only owl which hoots ; 

 and when I am in the woods after poachers, about an 

 hour before daybreak, I hear with extreme delight its 

 loud, clear, and sonorous notes, resounding far and near 

 through hill and dale. Very different from these notes 

 is the screech of the barn owl. But Sir William Jar- 

 dine informs us that this owl hcots ; and that he has shot 

 it in the act of hooting. This is stiff authority; and I 

 believe it because it comes from the pen of Sir William 

 Jardine. Still, however, methinks that it ought to be 

 taken in a somewhat diluted state ; we know full well 

 that most extraordinary examples of splendid talent do, 

 from time to time, make their appearance on the world's 

 wide stage. Thus, Franklin brought down fire from the 

 skies: " En'puit fulmen coelo, sceptrumque tyrannis." 

 Paganini has led all London captive, by a piece of twisted 

 catgut : " Tu potes reges comitesque stultos ducere." 

 Leibnitz tells us of a dog in Germany Jhat could pro- 

 nounce distinctly thirty words ; Goldsmith informs us 

 that he once heard a raven whistle the tune of the " Sham- 

 rock," with great distinctness, truth, and humour. With 

 these splendid examples before our eyes, may we not be 

 inclined to suppose that the barn owl which Sir William 

 shot in the absolute act of hooting may have been a gifted 

 bird, of superior parts and knowledge (una de multis, as 

 Horace said of Miss Danaus,) endowed, perhaps, from 

 its early days with the faculty of hooting, or else skilled 

 in the art by having been taught it by its neighbour, the 

 tawny owl ? I beg to remark that, though I unhesitat- 

 ingly grant the faculty of hooting to this one particular 

 individual owl, still I flatly refuse to believe that hooting 

 is common to barn owls in general. Ovid, in his sixth 

 book Fastorum, pointedly says that it screeched in his 

 days 



