110 Strigidcv. 



ship of Mr. Waterton, who has laboured most assiduously, and 

 with the power which he could so well wield, to defend this 

 much injured, harmless benefactor of mankind from the per- 

 secutions to which it is exposed at the hands of the wanton, 

 the thoughtless, and the ignorant. Mr. Waterton likewise in- 

 duced this species to take up its abode in a place he had 

 especially provided for its accommodation in a ruined ivy-covered 

 retreat at Walton Hall, and here he delighted to watch its move- 

 ments ; and he declared that he was amply repaid for the pains 

 he had taken to protect and encourage it by the enormous 

 quantity of mice which it destroyed. From him we learn that, 

 when it has young, it will bring a mouse to the nest every twelve 

 or fifteen minutes, and that above a bushel of pellets or cast- 

 ings was cleared out of its retreat within sixteen months of its 

 occupation of it, each pellet containing the skeletons of from 

 four to seven mice ; he also discovered, by constant and close 

 attention to its habits, that it will occasionally catch fish by 

 plunging into the water and seizing its slippery victim in its 

 claws. As a boy I possessed one of these owls, which I kept in 

 an aviary for a considerable time, and wishing to see its method 

 of seizing a live bird, I one evening turned two sparrows into its 

 apartment ; of these it took no notice whatever, which apparent 

 apathy on the part of my pet I attributed to the brightness of 

 the evening ; but great was my astonishment on the following 

 morning to find one sparrow roosting quietly in a corner, and 

 the other bold as he was and resolved to the letter to take the 

 bull by the horns snugly domiciled on the top of the owl's head, 

 actually nestling in the soft long feathers there, while the owl, 

 good easy bird, sat on its perch quite unconcerned, though fast- 

 ing for thirty-six hours. Macgillivray affirms that it is only to 

 be seen in the enclosed and wooded parts of the country, but I 

 can speak from experience that it frequents no less the wilder 

 and bleaker districts, abounding indeed in all places ; and taking 

 up its abode indiscriminately in towers, barns, hay-lofts, ruined 

 buildings, ivy-covered and hollow trees. 



It has, however, I regret to say, very much diminished in 



