132 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



last find a lodgment, and so form a foundation upon 

 which the nest may be built. Some such trees, mere 

 shells many of them but still making a show of 

 youthful verdure, contain many wheel-barrow loads 

 of sticks. The Stock Dove is always ready to take 

 to an unoccupied hole, and certain trees are known 

 as the ancestral patrimony of owls. The presence of 

 a family of young Barn Owls is indicated by those 

 snorings and snappings of the bill which have often 

 caused a belated countryman to quicken his steps as 

 he passes the churchyard elms. Their spotless white 

 down is so thick about the head as to suggest a com- 

 parison with the wigs of legal luminaries. Some of 

 these trees contain bushels of castings, the lower 

 stratum reduced to dust or rather finely pulverised 

 fur and bones, while the more recent ones if examined 

 give an exact inventory of the owl's food, — skulls 

 of the field-mouse and field-vole, of shrews, sparrows 

 and an occasional bat. If its character for utility be 

 impugned, the owl has only to adduce its castings as 

 sufficient evidence for the defence. The Brown Owl 

 is a bolder bird and sometimes brings young rabbits 

 to the nest. It resents too close an inspection of its 

 property. In one case known to the writer, a brown 

 owl, whose two nestlings were being investigated, came 

 noiselessly behind the intruder and gave him a blow 

 in the back as if a cricket-ball had struck him. 

 Formerly amongst well-grown timber it was no uncom- 



