EAR OF WHITE OWL 9 



carry the most delicate pulsations of sound to the 

 large and highly developed brain. The blowing 

 may have slightly disturbed his equanimity, and he 

 may, perhaps, have half opened one eye ; but the 

 moment it stops, you will find that, like the famous 

 fat boy in Pickwick, he is "fast asleep again." 



When his home is in a tree with a large hollow 

 in it, you will often find that at the bottom of the 

 hole is a soft conglomerate mass, perhaps half a 

 bushel in quantity, of what were once neat oblong 

 balls or pellets containing the indigestible portions 

 of his food the fur and bones and feathers, that is, 

 of the animals which he has swallowed. These a 

 wonderful provision of Nature as in the case of a 

 few other birds, like the kestrel and the kingfisher, 

 which bolt their food whole enables him to 

 disgorge, with violent and repeated efforts, from 

 his throat ; and, when examined, they give 

 incontestable proof, which even a game-preserver or 

 gamekeeper cannot fail to understand, of his great 

 services to man and of his complete innocence of 

 the sins, the destruction of young partridges and 

 pheasants, which have been laid to his charge. 

 These pellets are found in their more perfect oval 

 shape on the branches of the tree in which the 

 female is nesting, or on the ground round it, as well 



