4



great difficulty. We named the Owls Jimmy and Joey, though

to this day I have no idea of the sex of either. We kept them

for some years, but they never showed any inclination to nest.

For food we gave them ox liver cut into small pieces, this was

their staple diet, varied by scraps from dressing poultry or

game, and any mice we could get. In default of the latter we

gave them small pieces of rabbit skin, as some sort of fur seemed

necessary to keep them in health and to enable them to regularly

throw up large pellets. The Owls much preferred liver to raw

beef, and sometimes when the supply of the former ran short and

I used the latter as a substitute, their disgust at my conduct was

most marked. Joey would stand beside the food-pot and scatter

the offending substance right and left, hardly 7 eating a single

piece.


Some good friends of ours used to send us many dead

mice, sometimes (w r hen the stacks were thrashed) as many as

seventy at once. This was indeed a red letter day for the Owls,

and especially for Joey, for his besetting sin was decided greedi¬

ness. I have often seen him swallow five or six very small fur¬

less mice in rapid succession. They were eaten without ceremony

but in the case of larger mice the bones of the head were first

broken in the Owl’s mouth before being consumed—invariably 7

disappearing head first. Often the tail of the mouse would hang

out of the Owl’s beak sometime after the rest of the body had

disappeared. We often saw both birds drink, they 7 were also

very fond of bathing in a large bowl. Their manner of doing so

was very curious and never varied. As they were very shy about

being seen during the process, it was only by 7 patient watching

that I could observe them. The older bird always sat on the

basin-edge and dipped his face several times very solemnly into

the water before finally going into it. Once inside, he fluffed out

his feathers to such an extent that no water was visible, and

made a great splashing. Joey 7 was far shyer in his ablutions.

The bath seemed to have a terrifying fascination for him. He

would draw up his feathers cpiite closely until his legs appeared

a great length and then nervously run forward as if he were

treading on hot bricks. He always reminded me of a child

taking its first paddle, but having got fairly in the water he

thoroughly 7 eujoy 7 ed himself, and generally emerged looking a

perfect scarecrow, with dripping feathers, when he would run

very rapidly up and down a loug perch to get dry 7 .


Joey 7 and I were always great friends, but when we had

had him for some time an event occurred which effectually 7 sealed

his affedtiou for me. One day I found he had broken his upper



