HABITS OF THE BROWN OWL. 



105 



the side of the nest. The mamma Owl was absent, probably in search of food, but she 

 may have been present and have assisted at the death. I have see a cat on another 

 occasion cowed by an old Owl that came down the chimney into the dining-room." 



In the same paper is recorded an anecdote of a pair of Brown Owls that were kept in 

 confinement, and which, when approached by any stranger, would fly at him and fasten 

 their talons into his head with such angry violence that they could but be removed by 

 direct force. 



The food of this Owl is of a very varied nature, consisting of all the smaller 

 mammalia, many reptiles, some birds, fishes when it can get them, and insects. It seems 

 to be a good fisherman, and catches its finny prey by waiting on the stones that project 

 a little above the water, and adroitly snatching the fish from the stream by a rapid 

 movement of the foot. Sometimes it flies at much higher game, especially when it has a 

 young family to maintain, and will then attack birds and quadrupeds of very great size 

 when compared with its own dimensions. In a single nest of this -bird have been found, 

 according to a writer in the Field, three young Owls, five leverets, four young rabbits, 

 three thrushes, and one trout weighing 

 nearly half a pound. All these achieve- 

 ments, however, sink into insignificance 

 in comparison with a feat which is de- 

 scribed by Mr. Carr. 



" In 1 844 a pair of Tawny Owls reared 

 and ushered into the world their hopeful 

 young, after having fed them assiduously 

 upon the trees for many weeks after they 

 had left the nest. The food must often 

 have consisted in great part of worms, 

 snails, and slugs, for the old birds brought 

 it every minute from the ground in the 

 immediate vicinity of the trees where the 

 young were perched. This, however, might 

 only be considered as a whet to their 

 appetites before dinner, for the parents 

 made repeated and persevering attacks 

 upon three or four magpies' nests, some- 

 times during half an hour at a time. As 

 the defence was gallant and spirited, they 

 were often repulsed, but finally I found 

 the remains of young magpies under the 

 favourite perch of the Owls, and one 

 morning the bloody head and feathers of 

 an old magpie, conspicuous for its size 

 and the want of any cerous skin about the 

 beak. This, then, I thought, must have 

 been taken while roosting. 



In 18-45 the Owls alone were seen, and they passed the summer in sedate retirement, 

 and seemed to rest from the labours of propagation, neither did they molest the magpies. 

 But in 1 846 they began to be very active early in the spring, and by the beginning of May 

 again had their young Owlets out upon the branches. Walking about nine o'clock one 

 evening, I heard a pertinacious attack going on against a pair of magpies that had had 

 their nest in the top of a very tall sycamore. At last, instead of the frantic chattering 

 of the poor magpies, one of them began to shriek in agony like a hare when caught in a 

 noose, and it was evident that the Owl was trying to drag it the mother bird by the 

 head from the entrance of the nest. 



I ran down in time to separate the combatants by striking against the stem of the 

 tree with a stick. Before the next morning, the young of an only pair of rooks had 

 disappeared from the nest in a retreat in which none but the Owls could have imagined 



BROWN OWL. Surnium Aliu. 



