152 OWLS. 



alarm. We have another testimony in favour of the Owls 

 with regard to pigeons. A person who kept Pigeons, and 

 had often a great number of his young ones destroyed, laid it 

 on a pair of Owls which visited the premises, and accordingly, 

 one moonlight night, he stationed himself, gun in hand, close 

 to the dove-house, for the purpose of shooting the Owls. He 

 had not taken his station long before he saw one of them fly- 

 ing out with a prize in its claws ; he pulled his trigger, and 

 down came the poor bird, but instead of finding the carcass of 

 a young Pigeon, he found an old rat nearly dead. Mr. 

 Waterton met with a similar proof. He was one evening 

 sitting under a shed, watching for rats, when he killed a very 

 large one as it was coming out of its hole, about ten yards 

 distant. He did not immediately go to take it up, hoping to 

 get another shot ; when in a short time a Barn- Owl pounced 

 down and flew away with it. 



But there is another food of which Owls partake, little 

 guessed at, we suspect, by many, namely, fish. The great 

 Snowy Owl above mentioned is known to be a regular fishing- 

 bird. Motionless as the rock on which he sits, he waits 

 patiently till a fish passes, when with the rapidity of a shot, 

 he seizes it with his claws ; but, although asserted by some 

 naturalists, it had never been quite proved that the common 

 Owls were also fish-catchers ; but the fact has been now con- 

 firmed by the testimony of more than one credible witness. 

 Some years ago several young Owls had been taken from a 

 nest, and placed in a yew-tree near a gentleman's house. In 

 this situation it was observed that the parent birds repeatedly 

 brought them live fish, such as bull-heads and loaches, which 

 had evidently been taken from a neighbouring brook, in which 

 these species abounded. At subsequent times, bones of the 

 same fish were frequently found lying under the trees on 

 which the young Owls were observed to perch after they had 

 left the nest, and where the old ones were accustomed to feed 

 them. How they caught them was not then known; and the 

 report of some labourers, employed to watch a fish-pond in 

 the flower-garden, was not believed. This pond contained 

 several gold and silver fish, which were observed to diminish in 



