OWLS. 131 



much pleased with the discovery : this I look upon as a great 

 stroke in natural history.* 



We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white 

 owls that constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As 

 I have paid good attention to the manner of life of these birds 

 during their season of breeding, which lasts the summer 

 through, the following remarks may not perhaps be unaccep- 

 table. About an hour before sunset, (for then the mice begin 

 to run,) they sally forth in quest of prey* and hunt all round 

 the hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which 

 seem to be their only food. In this irregular country, we can 

 stand on an eminence and see them beat the fields over like a 

 setting-dog, and often drop down in the grass or corn. I have 

 minuted these birds with my watch for an hour together, and 

 have found, that they return to their nest, the one or the other 

 of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting, at the same 

 time, on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of, as 

 far as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. ) But a 

 piece of address, which they shew when they return loaded, 

 should not, I think, be passed over in silence. As they take 

 their prey with their claws, so they carry it in their claws to 

 their nest ; but, as the feet are necessary in their ascent under 

 the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel, 

 and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that the feet 

 may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall, as they 

 are rising under the eaves. 



White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot 

 at all ; J all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from 

 the wood kinds. The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in 

 a tremendous manner ; and these menaces well answer the 

 intention of intimidating, for I have known a w r hole village up 

 in arms on such an occasion, imagining the church-yard to be 

 full of goblins and spectres. $ White owls also often scream 



* Dr Haysham says, that the teal is now known to breed in the 

 mosses about Carlisle. ED. 



f Colonel Montagu has remarked, that the wren returns with food to 

 its offspring once in two minutes. The swallow generally feeds its young 

 every second or third minute. ED. 



| Sir William Jardine says white owls do hoot, and that he has shot 

 them in the act ; and a correspondent in Loudon's Magazine says, 

 " Owls which build in Attenborough Church, in this parish, sit on the 

 turrets and hoot fearfully. An old white owl used to frequent a dovecot, 

 not two hundred yards from where I am writing this, and, late in the 

 evening, would sit at the top and utter its doleful cries." ED. 



Dr Richardson, in speaking of the great Virginian horned owl, 



