THE FOOD OF OWLS 37 



lowance of small birds, like English sparrows, and, if possible, 

 an occasional small manimal, in each case with the feathers 

 or hair upon it. Nature has constructed the owl to devour 

 its prey entire — feathers, hair, bones and all, on the spot 

 where it is captured. 



By a curious rotary action of the stomach, all the desirable 

 elements are extracted and assimilated, and the indigestible 

 refuse — hair, feathers, bones, claws, etc. — is rolled into a ball 

 called a "pellet," which is cast up, and expelled through the 

 mouth. These pellets are sometimes collected at roosting- 

 places, and when carefully examined by expert zoologists, it is 

 possible to identify most of the animal remains, and tell what 

 the bird has fed upon. 



The Barn Owl, or Monkey-Faced Owl,^ is the most 

 oddly shaped of all the owls; it has the smoothest and most 

 compact plumage, and proportionately the longest legs. Its 

 general color is that of scorched linen — light brownish-yellow. 

 Each small black eye is the centre of a sunburst of radiating 

 feathers, and the whole face is surrounded by a heart-shaped 

 ring of brown. 



The Barn Owl is to rats and mice as the cuckoo is to the 

 caterpillar. As a destroyer of the meanest vermin on earth 

 (rats and mice) this bird has no equal. Whether north or 

 south, in the tropics or the temperate zone, it loves to live 

 under the roofs of civilized man, especially in church belfries, 

 where it is not molested. In the town of Barrancas, at the 

 head of the Orinoco delta, some Venezuelan boys piloted me 

 into the best church in the place, showed me two Barn Owls 



' Strix pra-tin'co-la. Length, from 15 to 17 inches. 



