WHITE OWL. 121 



object of attraction. In those districts they are 

 known by the name of Norway Owl. Their usual 

 haunts are fields of cole-seed and turnips ; in which 

 situations they may often be put up one after an- 

 other, to the number of fifty or more : but they are 

 never observed in stubbles, or amongst trees during 

 the day ; though they resort to these last to roost in 

 at night, and at such times seem much attached to 

 plantations of spruce-firs. 



WHITE OWL.* 



I FORMERLY spent a portion of the summer, for 

 several years in succession, in a house at Ely, the 

 eaves of which were tenanted by a pair of white 

 owls, that bred there regularly every season ; and 

 I had an opportunity of testing the accuracy 

 of what White has said respecting the habits of 

 this species. I never observed them bring anything 

 home to their young except mice and small rats. 

 Amongst the former, shrews were not unfrequent ; 

 but these, though captured, did not appear to be 

 in general devoured, as they might constantly be 

 found entire on the ground beneath the nest, hav- 

 ing been cast out, along with the usual rejected 

 pellets of bones and fur. I once noticed amongst 

 these rejectamenta a specimen of the water-shrew ;f 

 and on another occasion a half-grown individual of 

 the black variety of the water-rat mentioned in a 

 former part of this work. J I never in any instance 



* Strijc Jiammea, Linn. t Sorexfodiens, Gmel. 



} See p. 76. 



G 



