BARN-OWL 195 



affect the primitive mind, for in that low intellectual state what- 

 ever is strange is regarded as supernatural. 



Before sitting down to write this little history I went out into 

 the woods, and was so fortunate as to hear three owls calling with 

 unearthly shrieks to one another from some large fir-trees under 

 which I was standing, and, listening to them, it struck me as only 

 natural that in so many regions of the earth this bird should have 

 been, and should still be, regarded as an evil being, a prophet of 

 disaster and death. 



The barn-owl takes up his abode by preference in a building of 

 some kind an old rum, a loft in a barn or an outhouse ; but above 

 most sites he prefers an ivyclad church-tower, on which account 

 he has been called the church-owl. He also inhabits caves and 

 holes in cliffs, and hollow trees in woods. He spends the daylight 

 hours, standing upright and motionless, dozing on his perch ; and, 

 where he is persecuted, he does not stir abroad until dark. When 

 he is not molested he leaves his hiding-place before sunset, and is 

 BO little suspicious of man as to appear like a domestic bird in his 

 presence. He preys on mice, rats, moles, insects, and even fish, 

 which he has been observed to take in his claws from lakes 

 fcnd ponds. The indigestible portions of the small animals he 

 swallows the fur, feathers, bones, wing-cases, and scales are dis- 

 gorged in compact round pellets about the size of a cob-nut ; and 

 from an examination of a vast number of such pellets, it would 

 appear that about nine-tenths of the food of this owl consists of 

 mice. 



This fact is now so generally known that the owl, from being 

 one of the most persecuted of birds, is becoming a general favourite ; 

 and farmers who formerly shot it, and nailed it, with outspread 

 wings, to their barn-doors, in order that all might see and admire their 

 zeal in ridding the earth of so misshapen a pest, are now only 

 anxious to have the ' feathered cats * living in their barns again. 



The owl makes no nest, and lays from two to six eggs, which 

 are white and nearly round. It has the curious habit of laying two 

 or three eggs, and, long after incubation has begun, laying others, 

 and then others again, so that young of different ages and eggs not 

 yet near hatching may be found in the nest together. The young 

 make a curious snoring noise, which is their hunger cry ; and it 

 has been said that this cry is also occasionally uttered by the old 

 bird on the wing. 



