4922 THE ZooLocist—May, 1876. 
nothing with it until his grandfather (Mr. Ware), who saw the bird fall, 
came up and put his foot on it. A little terrier had made a bold attempt, 
but was sent “screeching” away. I unfortunately did not see, or even 
hear, of the capture of the bird until after it was stuffed, and was conse- 
quently unable to make a proper examination or take correct measurements 
of the specimen; however, from its comparatively small size and the 
general whiteness of its plumage, I feel certain of its being a male, and an 
old one too. Its weight was] said to be just over four pounds, and I found 
the length of the wing, from the point of the carpal joint to the end of the 
longest quill-feathers, exactly fifteen inches. The upper plumage is 
perfectly white, with the exception of some small dark brown bars and 
spots on the scapulars, tertials, wings, and head; all the tail-feathers 
white, with only three minute spots on the two centre ones, a couple 
on one and one on the other. There are also seven or eight faint lunate 
bars on either side of the breast, but beyond that all the under parts, from 
the chin to the tail-coverts, are wholly white. Bill and claws shining 
black, except at their bases. The bird was seen only a short time before it 
was killed, and was then being chased by some hawks, which are very 
plentiful in the neighbourhood of the warren. I am very sorry the poor 
bird was killed, for it would have been a grand sight to have seen it flying 
about in a wild state. The person who skinned the owl appeared much 
struck with the large bony rings of its eyes—dJ. Gatcombe; 8, Lower 
Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, April 4, 1876. 
Barn Owl and Shrew.—The following extract from ‘Bell's British 
Quadrupeds,’ 2nd edition, p. 144, may prove interesting to Mr. Mitford :— 
“Tt has often been stated that owls, like cats, will kill but not eat the 
shrew; and this opinion has received some plausible support from the 
circumstance that shrews are not uncommonly found dead, with the loins 
pinched, as if by the beak of some rapacious bird. The following fact, 
however, shows that this notion is altogether erroneous. Mr. Turner, of 
the Botanic Garden at Bury St. Edmunds, on examining twenty pellets or 
casts of the barn owl, taken promiscuously from a mass of them, covering, 
to the depth of several inches, the floor of an ancient retreat of a pair of 
these birds, found amongst them the skeletons of no less than seven shrews. 
We have ourselves seen several bushels of refuse taken from the inside of 
an old tree, which had been for many years the abode of the barn owl, and, 
amongst the numerous small skulls it contained, the most abundant 
appeared to be that of the present species.” Many of the Suffolk people 
haye an idea that the tail of a rat or mouse is poisonous, because neither 
cat nor ferret, however hungry they may be, will ever be induced to make a 
meal on it. This reminds me of an Eton boy, who, being troubled with 
mice in his room, invested in a “ catch-’em-alive, oh,” shaped like a well 
with sloping sides. This he placed under his bureau, where it remained 
