36 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
owls this one is quite peculiar in its habit of rather 
courting than flying from the haunts of man; for 
though it is in the ruins of temples it is also to be 
found in the thick foliage near villages and towns, 
and has even been noticed flying about in the 
very heart of Cairo in the Ezbekeir Gardens, as 
recorded by Mr. J. H. Gurney in his Rambles of 
a Naturalist—and the habit of attaching itself to 
human habitations is universal wherever it is met 
the world round. 
The Barn Owl has a custom which those who 
suffer from indigestion may well envy, and that is 
its power of disgorging, after every meal, all the 
indigestible portions of its dinner in a compact, 
round, hard pellet, about the size of a nut: and 
from under some of its roosting-places great 
basketsfull of these pellets have been collected, 
and men of science analyzing these have obtained 
therefrom the most precise information as to the 
diet of this much-persecuted bird. From such 
observations the value of its services in our own 
country were rather tardily recognised. But now 
that it is established that nine-tenths of its food 
consists of mice and rats, the law of the land has 
been invoked to protect it. Lord Lilford writes 
on the extraordinary appetite of young owls, that 
