10 OWLS 



as on the branches of the adjoining tree in which 

 her faithful mate keeps watch and ward. In 

 this small, soft, damp concrete of fur and bones I 

 have, sometimes, found imbedded large numbers of 

 the hard wing-cases of beetles or of cockchafers, a 

 species of prey which few would have suspected the 

 white owl of much affecting. The Germans are 

 great statisticians, and a German naturalist, Dr 

 Altum,* has carefully analysed a large number of 

 owl pellets. In 706 pellets of the barn owl he 

 found the remains of 2525 rats, mice, shrews, bats, 

 and voles, while there were fragments of only 

 twenty-two small birds, and those chiefly sparrows ; 

 and the results were similar in the case of the other 

 species of the owl. A dog, it is said, cannot remain 

 in good health without bones ; and the bones and 

 fur of rats and mice, however indigestible them- 

 selves, seem a necessary aid to the digestive process 

 in an owl. Feed a tame white owl on flesh from 

 which these have been removed, and he will soon 

 pine away and die. 



The method in which a tame white owl and if 



a tame, then probably also a wild one disposes of a 



mouse which he has caught, is curious. He holds it, 



for a minute or two, by its middle, then, by a quick 



* Quoted by Yarrell, British Birds, vol. i. 



