160 WHITE OWL. 



hundreds of mice must be destroyed in the course of rearing 

 them.' 



The note of this species is a screech a harsh prolongation 

 of the syllables 'tee-whit,' and it seldom, if ever, hoots. It 

 has been asserted that it never hoots, but 'never 's a bold 

 word.' Sir William Jardine is not the man to misstate a 

 fact. What if the White Owl should be to be added to 

 the number of mocking birds? The Rev. Andrew Matthews' 

 reasoning on this subject is somewhat obscure: he is of 

 opinion that the White Owl does not hoot, and in corrobo- 

 ration thereof, says that while a tame Brown Owl lived, the 

 large trees round the house were nightly the resort of 'many 

 wild birds of his species,' who left no doubt about their 

 note; but after his death, though the screeching continued, 

 the hooting ceased. 



If attacked these birds turn on their backs, and snap and 

 hiss. The young while in the nest make an odd kind of 

 snoring noise, which seems to be intended as a call to their 

 parents for food. 



The White Owl builds its nest, for the most part, in old 

 and deserted, as well as in existing buildings and ruins, chimneys, 

 eaves, or mouldering crevices, barns, dove-cotes, church-steeples, 

 pigeon-lofts, and, but very rarely, in hollow trees. With the 

 pigeons, if there are any in the place, they live in the most 

 complete harmony, and unjustly often bear the blame of the 

 depredations committed by jackdaws and other misdemeanants, 

 both quadruped and biped. 



The nest, if one be made at all, for oftentimes a mere 

 hollow serves the purpose, is built of a few sticks or twigs, 

 lined with a little grass or straw, or, though but seldom, with 

 hair or wool; and this is all that it fabricates, and that to but 

 a small extent either of bulk or surface. 



The eggs are white and of a round shape, generally two 

 or three, but sometimes as many as five or six in number, 

 which may be accounted for by the ascertained fact that they 

 will sometimes lay a first, second, and third clutch of two 

 eggs each. It will be seen that I have before alluded to 

 something of the sort, and I have a most extraordinary 

 circumstance of the kind to narrate 'in loco,' of the Moorhen. 

 The young have been found in the nest in the months of 

 July and September, and even in December. A pair observed 

 by the Rev. John Atkinson, of Layer Marney Rectory, Kelvedon, 

 Essex, for four successive years, ordinarily reared four young. 



