128 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



of mj- company. I assure j'ou I was very glad to get quit of their com- 

 pany, and to get to some water to wash off the blood and dirt I had got in 

 this funny, unexpected scrimmage, and I resolved in the future to be 

 better on my guard, and more careful how I approached an Owl's den on 

 a rainy evening, late in the season, stored with four or five strong Owlets, 

 and both old birds at home"*. 



We can remember when, in Xorth Devon, every linhay and every cob- 

 built barn possessed its tutelary Earn-Ovvl. A small hole, left in the 

 wall ju&t under the eaves for the purpose, admitted the Owl into the 

 barns to pay his useful domiciliary visits, and in some corner between the 

 wall-plate and the rafter, squeezing himself as far away as possible from 

 the unwelcome daylight, he would sleep through the day. Here a little 

 search would find him, in an attitude suggestive of a perpetual back-ache, 

 dozing away until the shades of evening once more invited him forth to 

 hunt the " small deer " on which he feeds. Sometimes the Barn-Owl 

 issues forth early of a dim November afternoon, when he may be seen 

 beating the hedgerows as regularly as a setter, every now and theu 

 suddenly jjausing and dropping down on a mouse which has failed to 

 detect his ajjproach on his noiseless wings. We have kept Barn-Owls 

 as pets, and have had them tame enough to fly and settle on our head 

 or shoulders on our approach. One we had was ver}- fond of fish, and 

 would make his meal contentedly off small trout, invariably swallowed 

 whole, tail first. The postures a Barn-Owl indulges in on the approach of 

 strangers are very ludicrous. He will I'etreat backwards into the furthest 

 corner, and there will throw himself upon his back claws upwards in a 

 posture of defence, and with these sharp claws he is capable of inflicting 

 an unpleasant scratch. Young Barn-Owls make a peculiar snoring and 

 hissing noise, which often betrays the position of the nest They also 

 make a cojitinual snapping with their beaks, a sound sometimes expres- 

 sive of alarm, sometimes of a desii^e for food, and sometimes, when it 

 came from our tame pets, we used to think, of welcome. They are 

 rather delicate to rear from their nestling-stage of balls of whitish fluffy 

 down, being somewhat subject to cramp. Barn-Owls, when seen on their 

 perch in the daytime, give one the impression of being extremelj- thin ; 

 indeed, of the very many we have handled, we never felt one which had 

 much flesh u])on it. They sit drawn up to their full height, presenting a 

 ■wedge-shajDed appearance, the thick end of the wedge being formed by the 

 head. 



These Owls are subject to a considerable variation in their plumage. 

 In a long row of these birds we were once grieved to see lying on the 

 counter in a bird-stufl'er's shop we could not find any two exactly corre- 



* Mr. Barnes ascribes this attack to Barn-Owls, and we have, tlierefore, inckided 

 it in uur account of that species ; but the wliole time we were transcribing his amusing 

 account we felt strongly convinced that it was a nest of the Hoofer, or Brown Owl, he 

 veulured to investigate, as the conduct of the old birds was exactly wiiat might be 

 es))ected from the valiant Hooter ; and we think he confused the two bii-ds in his 

 mind. AYe have never heard of the inoffensive Barn-Owl attacking people who came 

 near its nest. 



