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NATURAL HISTOET. 



but it is seldom that an Owl of any kind meets with approval on taking up his residence on an estate. 

 Facts, however, are stubborn things, and in the hope that a more generous reception may be afforded 

 to these useful birds, the following quotation is made from Professor Newton : " Owls, like other 

 birds of prey, as already mentioned, return by the mouth the indigestible parts of the food swallowed 

 in the form of elongated pellets. These are found in considerable numbers about the usual haunts of 

 the birds, and examination of them reveals the nature of the food, and shows in nearly every case the 

 great services tliey render to man by the destruction of Rats and Mice."* The infallibility of the 

 evidence thus afforded as to the food of the Owls is as complete as the way of obtaining it, by those 

 who have the opportunity, is simple. Several German naturalists have made some very precise 

 researches on this subject. The following results, with regard to the three commonest species of Owls, 

 are those afforded by the investigations of Dr. Altam, as communicated by him to the German 

 Ornithologists' Society during its meeting in 1862 : 



Colonel Irby, in the work which has already been alluded to, says of the Barn Owl : "Almost 

 exclusively feeding on Rats and Mice, they deserve every encouragement and support that can be 

 afforded them ; but from being in all countries regarded with superstitious awe and dislike, they 

 are more or less persecuted on that account ; and in England, through the ignorance and stupidity 

 of gamekeepers, who fancy that they kill game (i.e., feathered game), they suffer most severely. 

 This excuse is ridiculous, for old birds they have not the power to kill, and young Pheasants 

 and Partridges, at the time the Owls are on the feed, are safely being brooded by the parent bird." 

 Those who wish to encourage and increase Owls, and have not hollow trees or buildings where 

 they nest, may always gratify their wishes by fixing an empty barrel (about an 18-gallon. size) hori- 

 zontally in the fork of any large tree, cutting a hole in one end large enough for the birds to enter ; 

 but the hoops of the cask should be screwed on, or it will soon fall to pieces. Not only the Barn 

 Owl, but the Tawny Owl (Syrnium aluco} also will use barrels, or " Owl-tubs." The difficulty, how- 

 ever, is to keep out the Jackdaws, but when once the Owls have established themselves, there is no 

 fear of that intmsion. The late Mr. Waterton was a well-known admirer of the present species, 

 and he devotes one of his " Essays on Natural History " to the Barn Owl, from which a few passages 

 are extracted : " Up to the year 1813 the Barn Owl had a sad time of it at Walton Hall. Its 

 supposed mournful notes alarmed the aged housekeeper. She knew full well what sorrow it had 

 brought into other houses when she was a young woman, and there was enough of mischief in the 

 midnight wintry blast, without having it increased by the dismal sci-eams of something which people 

 knew very little about, and which everybody said was far too busy in the churchyard at night- 

 time. Nay, it was a well-known fact, that if any person were sick in the neighbourhood it would be 

 for ever looking in at the window, and holding a conversation outside with somebody, they did not 

 know whom. The gamekeeper agreed with her in everything she said on this important subject, 

 and he always stood better in her books when he had managed to shoot a bird of this bad and 

 mischievous family. However, in 1813, on my return from the wilds of Guiana, having suffered 

 myself, and learned mercy, I broke in pieces the code of penal laws which the knavery of the game- 

 keeper and the lamentable ignorance of the other servants had hitherto put in force, far too suc- 

 cessfully, to thin the numbers of this poor, harmless, unsuspecting tribe. On the ruin of the old 

 gateway, against which tradition says the waves of the lake have dashed for the greater part of a 



* Newton's edition of Yarrell's '' British Birds," Vol.1., p. 147. 



