58 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



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 ver- 

 min. " 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 

 happened 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, can- 

 not 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 compa- 

 nions without ; and, in fact, I have seen seve- 

 ral 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 them- 

 selves to be taken in a net." 



