THE BARN-OWL 235 



in captivity, and often lives to a great age under what must be 

 very unnatural conditions. 



STRIGES 



Owls are to be found the wide world over. But as their habits 

 are almost without exception nocturnal — that is to say, as they are 

 abroad by night and hidden away by day — they are not readily 

 seen. About 200 species are known, but they are so much alike 

 that our Common Barn-owl is a very good type of the group. 



THE BARN-OWL 



Asleep all day and awake all night, the barn-owl is a strange 

 bird, as well as a very useful one. In some respects it is like the 

 kestrel. It has the same strong sharp talons, and the same way 

 of killing its prey. And, like the kestrel, it feeds chiefly on mice. 

 It is, indeed, a kind of night-hawk, and is just as useful after sunset 

 as the kestrel is during the day. 



If we think it wonderful of the kestrel hawk that it should 

 see a mouse from high up in the air in the daytime, what are we 

 to think of the owl, which does the same even after the sun has 

 set, and it is what we call dark? Many animals, such as cats, 

 foxes, and stoats, hunt for their prey at night. So do the different 

 species of field mice; they hunt for sleeping butterflies and moths 

 and beetles, as well as for corn and seeds; but while they are 

 hunting, they are hunted in turn, for the owls are out flitting about 

 with their noiseless wings, and many a prowling mouse and sleeping 

 sparrow is pounced upon, and either swallowed whole, there and 

 then, or taken to feed the young in the owl's nest. 



That owls and other animals, such as the cat, can see at night 

 may perhaps astonish us; but their eyes are so constructed as to 

 catch even the faintest rays of light. And as they are so very 

 sensitive to light, they actually suffer when it is very bright. The 



