THE WHITE OR BARN OWL. 397 



feathers greyish black, the edges of a lighter shade ; tail ash 

 grey, with a broad black stripe near the end, which again is 

 tipped with white ; under parts whity brown, the breast 

 being streaked and the belly spotted with brown ; thighs 

 and under tail coverts of a pale fawn colour, also streaked ; 

 under surface of tail whitish grey, showing slightly marked 

 transverse bands, besides the black terminal bar ; legs and 

 toes yellow; claws black. In the female the crown is a rich 

 fawn with dark stripes ; upper parts, including the tail, all 

 reddish brown, with bars of bluish black, the tail having the 

 black bar tipped with white, as in the male; the whole under 

 surface paler than in the male, in other respects the same. 

 The young males resemble the females till after their first 

 winter. The kestrel builds in high rocks or old towers, but 

 frequently it takes possession of an old crow's or magpie's 

 nest. It lays four or five eggs one inch seven lines long by 

 one inch three lines, mottled with dark reddish brown on a 

 pale reddish white ground. They are usually hatched about 

 the 1st of May. The illustration represents an adult male. 



THE WHITE OR BARN OWL (Strix flammea). 



Mr. \Vaterton has taken this bird under his special pro- 

 tection, and has shown that its food is almost entirely 

 composed of young rats, mice, shrews, small birds, and 

 insects, as well as occasionally fish. That it does occasionally 

 capture game is true enough, but such a misdemeanour is 

 exceptional. Still there is no denying the fact that ifc is 

 sometimes caught, flagrante delicto ; but the services which 

 it renders to the farmer ought to make the game preserver 

 pass these peccadillos over. Like the kestrel, the little harm 

 which it does is compensated for a hundredfold by its good 

 deeds, and the keeper who shoots it, to the annoyance of the 

 farmer, will lose far more than he will gain. The barn owl is 

 common enough in England and Ireland, but it is not so 

 frequently met with in the north. When it does give 

 utterance to any noise, which is but seldom, it screeches 

 rather than hoots, like the tawny owl, but still the note may 

 be called a hoot by some people. When in search of food it 

 skims with noiseless wing the fields around its abode, and 



