58 Animal Life 
always shown a much more docile disposition 
than the other; the tamer of the two will 
actually take food from our hands if at all 
hungry, but the other only comes to feed 
when quite satisfied that we have gone 
to a safe distance, and it will on no account 
face the camera. They are kept in a 
specially-constructed large square of wire 
netting, in which stands their cage. I have 
frequently felt tempted to let them fly quite 
loose at night, feeling sure they would return 
to their cage at daylight, but lhvimg as we 
do very near a game preserve, I am afraid 
some ubiquitous keeper would consider them 
suitable targets for his much too ready gun. 
They are fed as nearly in accordance with 
nature as possible, rats and mice being often 
available, but when these cannot be obtained 
raw meat cut small is given them. Ovwls, 
like cats, always begin at the head when 
eating a rat, tearing away the flesh and 
leaving the skin; mice are bolted whole, 
Ro whilst birds are always plucked with great 
YOUNG BARN-OWL, AGED ONE MONTH. dexterity before they are swallowed. After 
equally applicable to owls. Young owls are digestion the bones, etc., of their carnivorous 
very queer-looking birds, the white powder- diet which are not required for nourishment 
puff of the nursery being the object nearest are expelled from their mouths in pellets 
resembling them, especially as they remain 
quite motionless for long periods of time. 
When disturbed they turn their uncanny- 
looking heads from side to side and com- 
pletely round, bobbing up and down and 
emitting a hissing noise which would put a 
boiling tea-kettle quite into the shade. The 
bird, of which two portraits are given, is one 
of a pair which were taken when about a 
month old from an old pigeon loft where 
their ancestors had been established for 
many years. ‘The knowing country folk 
of the district prophesied that we should 
never rear them (writes C. W. M., their 
owner), but up to the present they have 
been splendidly healthy, having passed 
through successive moultings without mishap 
most successfully, and it was extremely 
interesting to watch them at the critical 
period of their lives when they evolved 
from powder-puffs into awkward-looking 
hobbledehoys, and then into lovely-plumaged 
full-sized barn owls. Strangely enough, 
from the first days of their arrival one has 
SS SS 
THE SAME OWL TWO YEARS OLD. 
