174> THE TAWXY OWL. 



Though the tawny owl generally takes up its 

 abode in dark and gloomy woods, still it occasionally 

 settles very near the habitation of man. In a hollow 

 sycamore, within a dozen yards of this house, there 

 had been the nest of a ta\vny owl, time out of mind. 

 Here the birds would have remained to this day, 

 had not a colony of jackdaws, which I had encou- 

 raged, by hanging up wooden boxes for them in the 

 next tree, actually driven the owls away, in order 

 that they might get possession of the hole. Before 

 this misfortune befell them, a servant once robbed 

 their nest, and placed the young ones in a willow 

 cage, not far from the hollow tree. The parent 

 birds brought food for their captive offspring ; but, 

 not being able to get it through the bars of the 

 cage, they left it on the ground on the outside. 

 This food consisted of mice, rats, small birds, and 

 fish, which I myself saw and examined. At the 

 present time, I have a tawny owl, sitting on four 

 eggs, in a large ash tree, close to a much- frequented 

 summer-house. The male stays in a spruce fir 

 tree, and hoots occasionally throughout the day. I 

 have found, by dissecting the ejected bolus of this 

 species, that it feeds copiously upon different sorts 

 of beetles. 



Were I just now requested to find a hollow tree 

 in the woods of the neighbourhood, I should say 

 that it were useless to go in quest of one ; so eager 

 have the proprietors been to put into their pockets 

 the value of every tree which was not " making 

 money," according to the cant phrase of modern 

 wood-valuers. No bird has felt this felling of ancient 



