94 WHITE OWl. 



THE WHITE OWL. 



LENGTH fourteen inches. Bill pale horn colour; eyes 

 dark; the radiated circle round each eye is composed of 

 feathers of the most delicate softness, and perfectly white ; 

 the head, back, and wings, are of a pale chesnut, beauti- 

 fully powdered with, very fine grey and brown spots, 

 intermixed with white, the breast, belly, and thighs are 

 white ; on the former are a few dark spots : the legs are 

 feathered down to the toes, which are covered with short 

 hairs ; the wings extend beyond the tail, which is short, 

 and marked with alternate bars of dusky and white ; the 

 claws are white. Birds of this kind vary considerably : of 

 several which were in the hands of the editor, the dif- 

 ferences were very conspicuous, the colours being more or 

 less faint according to the age of the bird ; the breast in 

 some was white, without spots in others pale yellow. 



The White Owl is well known, and is often seen in the 

 most populous towns, frequenting churches, old houses, 

 mailings, and other uninhabited buildings, where it con- 

 tinues during the day, and leaves its haunts in the twilight 

 in quest of its prey. It has obtained the name of Screech 

 Owl from its cries, repeated at intervals, and rendered loud 

 and frightful from the stillness of the night. 



M. Cronstedt, a gentlemen, who resided on a farm in 

 Sudermania, has recorded a very singular instance of the 

 attachment of two Owls to their young : 



" A young Owl, having quitted its nest in the month of 

 July, was seized by some of Mr. C.'s servants. The bird 

 was accordingly shut up in a large hen-coop, and the next 

 morning M. Cronstedt found a young partridge lying dead 

 before the door of the coop. He immediately concluded 

 that this provision had been brought thither by the old 

 Owls, which he supposed had been making search in the 

 night-time for their lost young one, and had been led to 

 the place of its confinement by its cry. This proved to 

 have been exactly the case, by the same mark of attention 

 being repeated for fourteen nights successively. 



" This gentleman tried to watch several nights, in order 

 to observe through a window when the supply was 

 deposited ; but his plan did not succeed ; and it would 

 appear that these Owls, which are very short-sighted, had 

 discovered the moment when the window was not watched, 

 as food was found to have been deposited for the young 



