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10 



The call of the Barn-Owl is a loud, harsh, and most weird-sounding shriek, which is more 

 frequently uttered during the pairing-season than at any other time ; and early in the evening, 

 when the bird commences its nocturnal peregrinations, the cry is most often heard. Besides this 

 loud cry or shriek, the bird sometimes makes a sound which is scarcely distinguishable from the 

 snore of a man when sleeping with his mouth open ; and the young birds in the nest are said 

 to utter this snoring sound also. 



The Barn-Owl breeds later in the season than most of the other European Owls; for its 

 eggs are seldom deposited before the middle or end of April, and more often in May ; but it 

 raises several broods in the year, and Waterton says that he once found a half-fledged owlet 

 in the nest as late as December. Like many of its allies, this Owl occasionally deposits its eggs 

 at intervals, so that young birds nearly fledged, quite small downy young, and eggs may be 

 found in the same nest ; and very probably the warmth of the young birds assists in the incu- 

 bation. The number of eggs varies from three to six ; and I once had as many as seven eggs 

 taken from the same nest. In colour the eggs are pure white, rather dull, and devoid of gloss, 

 somewhat elongated in shape ; and those in my collection vary from 1^ by 1^% to lf-f by 1-^ 

 inch in size. 



Referring to the breeding-habits of this Owl, my friend Mr. Carl Sachse writes to me as 

 follows: — "On the 4th June, 1867, I found a nest in which was a young bird just hatched and 

 five eggs, one of which was over three quarters incubated, another about half, one quite fresh — 

 in fact, all in different stages of incubation. Sometimes the Barn-Owl nests in hollow trees near 

 dwelling-houses, but here generally in barns, churches, and towers, on the walls under the eaves 

 of the roof; and the eggs are placed without any sort of nest under them. In number they are 

 from five to six. At some paper-mills near here a pair of Barn-Owls laid four eggs in a dove- 

 cote; but the people there thought the Owls would eat the pigeons, and therefore caught and 

 killed them. I have been assured on good authority that the sexton at Gummersbach, a small 

 town near Cologne, took away the eggs from a Barn-Owl which was sitting in the church-tower 

 there, and substituted hen's eggs, which the Owl took charge of and hatched out. So soon as 

 the chickens were hatched they were taken away and brought up by hand ; and the good man 

 lirmly believed that chickens hatched in this peculiar manner never scratch. On the next 

 opportunity that presents itself I shall certainly try if the Barn-Owl really will hatch out 

 hen's eggs." 



When the young are hatched they are very plentifully supplied by their parents with food, 

 especially with mice ; and Waterton says that they will bring a mouse to the nest every twelve 

 or fifteen minutes. As a proof of the number of mice they destroy, he says that in sixteen 

 months a deposit of over a bushel of pellets had accumulated in an old tower which was 

 inhabited by a pair of Owls, each of which pellets would contain from four to seven skeletons 

 of mice. 



The specimens figured are both British-killed, and are in my own collection, that in the 

 foreground being an adult of the white form, and the bird in the background being the adult 

 dark-coloured specimen from Kent above referred to. 



