150 .OWLS. 



the loose snow, and make their way beneath it to a consider- 

 able distance.* 



Our well-known White Owl is a very different bird in its 

 habits : so far from wandering far from the abodes of man, it 

 is always near or about our dwellings ; the constant frequenter 

 of our barns and outhouses, and one of the farmer's best 

 friends ; for to it we are indebted for the destruction of the- 

 shrew-mice, a species which, but for the good service of our 

 Barn- Owls, might prove a great annoyance to our gardens 

 and fields, since, owing to a peculiar flavour or smell, neither 

 cat nor dog will eat them. On the approach of twilight, 

 they sally forth from their roosting-places, and hunt the 

 meadows and hedge-banks with the regularity of a pointer-i 

 dog ; every now and then they may be seen to drop suddenly 

 down, with great rapidity and unerring aim, on their game, 

 which is seized on and swallowed at once, without any attempt 

 to tear it in pieces with its claws. If, however, they have 

 young ones, they carry off the prize in their claws ; and here 

 a curious piece of address is practised. It is evident, as long 

 as the mouse is retained by the claw, the old bird cannot 

 avail itself of its feet, in its ascent under the tiles, or approach 

 to their holes ; consequently, before it attempts this, it perches 

 on the nearest part of the roof, and there removing the mouse 

 from its claws to its bill, continues its flight to the nest. Some 

 idea may be formed of the number of mice destroyed by a 

 pair of Barn-Owls, when it is known that in the short space 

 of twenty minutes the old birds carried food to their young 

 twelve times, thus destroying at least nearly forty mice 

 every hour during the time they continue hunting ; and as 

 young Owls remain long in the nest, many hundreds of mice 

 must be destroyed in the course of rearing them. 



If taken young, they may be tamed, so far as to eat out of 

 the hand, and become to a certain degree familiar ; but in 

 their wild state even, they seem to be sensible of kindness, and 

 lose much of their shyness if never disturbed. A gentleman 

 in Yorkshire, Mr. Waterton, who has paid great attention to 

 their habits, gives a very interesting account of their mode 



* KING'S Narrative, vol. i. p. 126. 



