WHITE OR BARN OWL. 59 



we have a venerable ruined belfrey and a moon, we have no owl 

 to live in the one or mope her melancholy at the other." 



In the East of Scotland the White Owl is common enough from 

 Berwickshire to Aberdeenshire, with the exception of perhaps 

 Forfarshire; it is likewise found in many of the midland counties, 

 especially those south of Perthshire. In Banffshire it is rare, but 

 westward it becomes more common, and is by no means rare in 

 Ross-shire. I have been informed by Mr Morrison, gunmaker, 

 Dingwall, that he has had as many as half-a-dozen sent to him in 

 the course of a week for preservation. In the woods of East 

 Lothian I have many times been startled by its dismal screechings 

 after dusk. I recollect on one occasion when moth-catching in the 

 Tyne woods in company with my late friend, J. Nelson, Esq., 

 hearing one break out into a piercing solo, which even yet brings 

 that night's work more vividly before me than any mere words 

 could do. We were engaged in brushing a sugary compound on 

 the trunks of the trees to attract the " night-fliers," when the 

 noise suddenly broke the silence of the woods in screams so loud 

 as to startle a group of horses that had been quietly resting for the 

 night, and set them all into a hard gallop across the park. On 

 turning our bull's-eye lantern so as to penetrate, if possible, the 

 gloom of the foliage overhead, we noticed our feathered friend 

 looking down from a branch with a most comical stare, and 

 evidently as much puzzled as we were at the turn affairs had taken. 

 There was no need of a ruined castle or cathedral to enhance the 

 sensation of loneliness we both experienced at the moment; and 

 as we shut off the light and waited for another solo, the dense 

 gloom of the thicket could not have been more irksome. 



The Eev. Alexander Stewart of Ballachulish has furnished me 

 with a very amusing account of a pet male bird of this species, 

 which he had brought up from the nest. From a mere puff-ball 

 of white down he had grown into a handsome bird, proud of his 

 sharp claws, which he seemed to make use of with great effect in 

 maintaining his superiority among the feathered gentry of the court- 

 yard. " In the kitchen," says Mr Stewart, " neither cat nor dog 

 dare venture near the hearth when 'Strix,' as we called him, had 

 gravely set himself, standing on one leg, with his back to the fire, 

 for a comfortable nap in the genial warmth, which he seemed 

 always to enjoy vastly. If, while in this state, he chanced to be 

 pushed against, or disturbed in any way, he just opened the corner 



