178 NATURAL HISTORY 



snore and hiss in a tremendous manner ; and these menaces 

 well answer the intention of intimidating : for I have known 

 a whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining 

 the churchyard to be full of goblins and spectres. White 

 owls also often scream horribly as they fly along ; from 

 this screaming probably arose the common people's imagi- 

 nary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously 

 think attends the windows of dying persons. The plumage 

 of the remiges of the wings of every species of owl that I 

 have yet examined is remarkably soft and pliant. Perhaps 

 it may be necessary that the wings of these birds should 

 not make much resistance or rushing, that they may be 

 enabled to steal through the air unheard upon a nimble and 

 watchful quarry. 



While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to 

 mention what I was told by a gentleman of the county of 

 Wilts. As they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash 

 that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he dis- 

 covered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he 

 could not account for. After some examination, he found 

 that it was a congeries of the bones of mice (and perhaps 

 of birds and bats) that had been heaping together for ages, 

 being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many genera- 

 tions of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and 

 feathers of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. 

 He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this 

 kind of substance. 1 



Mr. TV. Boulton, of Beverley, referring to a bird of this species which 

 he had reared from the nest, observed (" Zoologist," 1863, p. 8765) : 

 " It does ' hoot' exactly like the long eared owl, but not so frequently. 

 I use the term 'hoot' in contradistinction to 'screech,' which it often 

 docs when irritated." ED. 



1 In order to ascertain the nature of the food of owls, a Germnn 

 naturalist, Dr. Altum, collected their " pellets" at different seasons of 

 the year, and in different localities, and carefully examined them, with 

 the following remarkable results. In 706 pellets of the white or barn 

 owl he found the remains of the following animals : bats 16, rats 3, 

 mice 237, voles 693, shrews 1590, mole 1, small birds 22. In 210 

 pellets of the tawny owl (. aluco) he found remains of stoat 1, rats 6, 

 mice 42, voles 296, squirrel 1, shrews 33, moles 4$, small birds 18. and 



