among the rest, some very minute yet well-fledged 

 wild-fowls alive, which upon examination I found to 

 be teals. I did not know till then that teals ever 

 bred in the south of England, and was 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 unaccepta- 

 ble : — 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 in- 

 closures for them, which seem to be their only food. 

 In this irregular country we can stand on an emi- 

 nence and see them beat the fields over like a setting- 

 dog, often dropping 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 adroit- 

 ness that every animal is possessed of as far as re- 

 gards the well-being of itself and offspring. But a 

 piece of address which they show 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 



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