OWLS AND OWL-LIKE BIRDS. 



BARN OWL.— Plate 78. Length, 14 inches. 

 Upper parts pale golden, clouded -^vith gray and with 

 minute spots black upon white ; under parts white. 

 Resident. 



Eggs. — Laid successively in pairs, rounded at both 

 ends, and pure white ; 1'6 x 1'2 inch (plate 129). 



Nest. — None, the eggs being laid in dark corners 

 of church towers, barns, and similar places ; and in 

 cavities in walls, trees, cliffs, &c. 



Distribution. — General throughout England, Wales, 

 and Ireland ; also the Lowlands of Scotland, but rare 

 farther north. 



This is the White Owl, and, as such, if seen in the 

 light, at once distinguishable from other Owls. Being, 

 however, a nocturnal species, it sleeps during the -day 

 in barns, outhouses, or church towers, arid when it 

 emerges in the twilight is likely to appear as a black 

 rather than as a white bird. Seen against the sky at 

 such times, it shows as a dark, square-winged bird, 

 not using its wings with a full sweep, but with 

 short, quick strokes, and flitting noiselessly with 

 a bat-like flight through the night. It has two 

 common cries, one a screech or rasping yell, to which 

 it will give sudden utterance when flying ; the other 

 a long-drawn, hissing or wheezing sound often called 

 snoring ; but it is the snore of the heavy breather, 

 not the raucous roar of the finished artist. As this 

 Owl feeds almost exclusively on mice, rats, shrews. 



