BARN OWL. 2'J 



My most familiar boy-acquaintance, however, was with the 

 nesting place and habits of a pair which nested for many 

 consecutive years in a slight hollow in the crown of a large 

 pollard Elm tree in my father's church-yard in Essex. There 

 were usually three or four young ones year by year, often with 

 perceptible differences of growth among them. Indeed it is 

 well known that this Owl and the last named, and probably 

 others as well, lay their eggs in instalments, as it were, ami 

 when the first batch of two is about hatching or nearly so, 

 other two are deposited in addition, and thus hatched in their 

 turn almost as much by their brother and sister as by their 

 mother. Quainter, graver, odder, stranger, more irresistibly 

 comic creatures than these young Owls 1 never saw ; and the 

 hissing and snoring, and peering looks at the spectator, and 

 strange antic contortions I heard and saw, baffle all attempts 

 at description. The entertainment, for such it was most truly, 

 usually began some little time before sunset, about which time 

 the old birds might be seen commencing their labours of 

 purveying food for Masters and Misses Howlet. At intervals of 

 from seven to ten minutes one or other of them came to the nest 

 with a prey, and I could always tell by the sounds and gest- 

 ures of the young Owls when the old one was approaching. How 

 they knew I could not tell ; it was not by sight, and I could 

 hear no sound myself; but know they did most certainly. Mice, 

 slugs, sometimes a large insect apparently, or a small bird, very 

 rarely a Mole, or Hat of no large dimensions, were brought in 

 continuous succession, and in the claw, not with the bill. When 

 the animal was of small dimensions, the old Owl flitted off again 

 with scarcely any pause at the nest. If a large one, it seemed 

 by the time which elapsed, and the sounds which became 

 audible most vehement snorings and hissings that partition 

 had to be made, and that the said partition was a matter of 

 the greatest interest to the parties concerned. I cannot affirm 

 positively that the old Owls prosecuted their most successful 

 hunting all through the night ; but I believe they did, and I 

 have seen them still at work in the morning long after sun-rise, 

 once as late as between ight and nine in the morning in the 

 height of summer. A.3 the inmates of a dove-cot, they are on 

 very excellent terms with the proper dwellers therein, although 

 from the known habits of other Owls the human owners of the 

 dove-cot are apt to assume, most groundlessly and unjustly, that 

 they are sure to destroy the young Pigeons. I don't believe, 

 however, that if all the rejected pellets of bones, fur, feathers, 

 &c., from all the Barn Owls in the kingdom could be examined, 

 that any trace of pigeon, old or young, would be discovered; and 

 that farmer is a foolish farmer who either de$trovs a Barn 



