24 BIRDS OF TTERRA DEL FUEGO 



When I found that this first settlement on the gateway had 

 succeeded so well, I set about forming other establishments. 

 This year I have had four broods, and I trust that next season 

 I can calculate on having nine. 



" We can now have a peep at the Owls in their habitation on 

 the old ruined gateway, whenever we choose. Confident of 

 protection, these pretty birds betray no fear when the stranger 

 mounts up to their place of abode. I would here venture 

 a surmise, that the Barn Owl sleeps standing. Whenever we go 

 to look at it, we invariably see it upon the perch, bolt upright ; 

 and often with its eyes closed, apparently fast asleep." 



As to the statement by Buffon and Bewick that the Barn 

 Owl snores during repose, Waterton suggests that what they 

 took for snoring was the cry of the young birds for food. He 

 adds : — "I had fully satisfied myself on this score some years ago. 

 However, in December, 1823, 1 was much astonished to hear this 

 same snoring kind of noise, which had been so common in the 

 month of July. On ascending the ruin, I found a brood of young 

 Owls in the apartment." 



" If this useful bird caught its food by day, instead of hunting 

 for it by night, mankind would have ocular demonstration of 

 its utility in thinning the country of mice ; and it would be 

 protected, and encouraged, everywhere. It would be with us 

 what the Ibis was with the Egyptians. 



" When it has young, it will bring a mouse to the nest about 

 every twelve or fifteen minutes. But, in order to have a proper 

 idea of the enormous quantity of mice which this bird destroys, 

 we must examine the pellets which it ejects from its stomach in 

 the place of its retreat. Every pellet contains from four to seven 

 skeletons of mice. In sixteen months from the time that the 

 apartment of the Owl on the old gateway was cleaned out, there 

 has been a deposit of above a bushel of pellets." 



Waterton occasionally observed this Owl preying on rats 

 and fish. 



As to the disputed point whether or not the Barn Owl lioots, 

 he denies this, and says it screeches. " The Barn Owl may be 



