126 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot at 

 all : all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the 

 wood kinds. 1 The white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a 

 tremendous manner ; and these menaces well answer the inten- 

 tion of intimidating : for I have known a whole village up in 

 arms on such an occasion, imagining the church-yard to be full 

 of goblins and spectres. White owls also often scream horribly 

 as they fly along ; from this screaming probably arose the 

 common people's imaginary species of screech-owl, which they 

 superstitiously think attends the windows of dying persons. 

 The plumage of the remiges of the wings of every species of 

 owl that I have yet examined is remarkably soft and pliant. 

 Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of these birds should 

 not make much resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled 

 to steal through the air unheard upon a nimble and watchful 

 quarry. 



While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention 

 what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts. As 

 they were grubbing a vast hollow pollard-ash that had been the 

 mansion of owls for centuries, he discovered at the bottom a 

 mass of matter that at first he could not account for. After 

 some examination, he found it was a congeries of the bones of 

 mice (and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping 

 together for ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of 

 many generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, 

 fur, and feathers, of what they devour, after the manner of 

 hawks. He believes, he told me, that there were bushels of this 

 kind of substance. 2 



When brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as an hen's 

 egg. I have known an owl of this species live a full year 

 without any water. Perhaps the case may be the same with all 

 birds of prey. When owls fly they stretch out their legs behind 

 them as a balance to their large heavy heads : for as most 

 nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears they must have large 

 heads to contain them. Large eyes I presume are necessary to 



1 [The question whether the white owl hoots like the brown owl has often been 

 discussed. The evidence seems to point to the conclusion that it occasionally does 

 so. White's reservation, "but in this I am not positive," may be noted with 

 advantage ; it illustrates the difficulties which attend the conscientious observation 

 of birds. We learn from the beginning of this letter that White had paid constant 

 attention to this species for many summers ; yet he will not be positive on this 

 point.] 



2 [Bones of frogs sometimes abound in such accumulations.] 



