THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 



gets. Besides mice it also preys upon rats, moles, shrews, 

 and even occasionally on fishes. The flight of this Owl 

 is graceful, airy, and noiseless, and in course of feeding 

 the bird will quarter almost every foot of field after field, 

 flitting to and fro in a very ghost-like way. The startling, 

 unearthly note of the Barn Owl a wild screech is too 

 well known to require more than the barest allusion ; 

 besides this it utters a snoring note. This Owl, like the 

 House Sparrow, begins to breed early in spring, and 

 continues to rear brood after brood all the summer. It 

 makes no nest, but lays from three to six white eggs, 

 rough in texture, and about as big as those of a Pigeon. 

 These are deposited on the bare floor of the hole or on 

 the pellets of food refuse cast up by the parents, the 

 cavity selected usually being the day retreat. The first 

 eggs are laid in April or May, and clutches are produced 

 until quite late in the autumn. Many readers may be 

 familiar with the snoring cry made by the Owlets, but 

 this noise is not entirely confined to the young. 



The Barn Owl has the general colour of the upper parts 

 sandy buff, vermiculated with grey and finely spotted 

 with black and white ; the wings and tail barred with 

 brown ; the pear-shaped face surrounded by a frill of 

 stiff plumes; and the under parts generally are white in the 

 male, but sparsely spotted with dark brown on the flanks 

 in the female. In some examples the breast is suffused 

 with rufous. Bill pale yellow ; feet covered with stiff 

 hairs ; claws black ; irides black. Length of adult about 

 13 inches. The young are clothed in white down. 



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