112 Order III 



Bones, beetles' wings, and so forth are cast up in the 

 form of pellets. 



Family STRIGID-ffi, or Owls 



We have four native species of this Family in 

 Britain, not including the recently introduced Little 

 Owl, which resemble one another in their soft noiseless 

 flight and in their food,, but differ in voice and many 

 of their other habits. The Barn or Screech Owl 

 {Flammea flammea), which is sometimes on structural 

 grounds placed in a separate Subfamily, is mottled with 

 brown, grey, white, and bright buff above, and has the 

 face and lower parts white. But there is another 

 phase which has much greyer upper parts and buff 

 under surface, these differences being still more pro- 

 nounced abroad, where the bird, under one or another 

 subspecific or specific name, extends over nearly the 

 whole world. It is not, however, an Arctic species, 

 while in Britain it is becoming rarer, even in suitable 

 places, owing to persecution. In the gloaming it has 

 a ghostly appearance as it passes with its noiseless 

 flight in search of the small mammals and insects on 

 which it mainly feeds, while its weird screech adds to 

 the uncanny effect. As it only comes out at nightfall 

 it comparatively seldom takes young birds, but is, of 

 course, very beneflcial to agriculturists. This " White " 

 Owl lays its five or six dull white eggs in towers, barns, 

 dovecots, hollow trees, holes in cliffs or steep banks 

 without any nest ; they are sometimes deposited in 

 pairs at intervals, so that the young may be of very 

 different ages. 



The Long-eared Owl {Asio otus), on the other hand, 

 is entirely a woodland bird, which breeds in old nests 



