The Owl, Bird of Night 87 



food during the night, and the owls are the natural check 

 upon them. The hawk hunts by day and the owl by night, 

 and the work of one supplements that of the other. 



A pair of barn owls occupied one of the towers of the 

 Smithsonian Institution at Washington. When the young 

 were half-grown the floor was strewn with pellets. An 

 examination of two hundred of these showed a total of 

 four hundred and fifty-four skulls. Four hundred and 

 twelve of these were mice, twenty rats, twenty shrews, one 

 mole, and one vesper sparrow. 



A family of young barn owls will number from three 

 to seven birds. It is hard to believe what an amount of 

 vermin a family of owls will consume. An old owl will 

 capture as much or more food than a dozen cats in a night. 

 The owlets are always hungry; they will eat their own 

 weight in food every night, and more, if they can get it. 

 A case is on record where a half-grown owl was given all 

 the mice it could eat. It swallowed eight, one after the 

 other. The ninth followed all but the tail, which for 

 some time hung out of the bird's mouth. The rapid diges- 

 tion of the birds of prey is shown by the fact that in three 

 hours the little glutton was ready for a second meal, and 

 swallowed four more mice. If this can be done by a single 

 bird, what effect must a whole nestful of owls have on the 

 vermin of a community? 



I wondered at the changes in the owl faces as they grew 

 older. When I first saw them in white down, I thought, 

 the face was that of a sheep, and then a monkey, and then 

 I didn't know just what it resembled. The third time 

 we visited the nest each youngster had a face that surely 

 looked like some old grandmother dressed in a nightcap. 



