BARN-OWL. 149 



Islands. The question o£ the number of subspecies into which the Barn- 

 Owl must be subdivided is far too complicated a one to be discussed here. 



Although the Barn-Owl is not found in any other part of the world in 

 such a high latitude as the British Islands, it is nevertheless the commonest 

 Owl we have. In the daytime it is not often seen ; it is preeminently a 

 nocturnal bird. When the sun rises it retires to its hiding-place, which 

 is generally the locality chosen in which to rear its young. This is 

 generally a hole, sometimes on the top of an old pollard willow, often in 

 the hollow of the trunk of an old oak, as often in some crevice in an ivy- 

 grown ruin ; and it is fond of nesting amongst the Pigeons in the farm-yard 

 dove-cote. Other favourite places are the top of a wall under the roof of 

 the barn, or in the belfry of the church ; but occasionally it may be found 

 away from its nest in the dark recesses of a thick pine-plantation. It 

 sleeps all day ; and if on a flat stone, where it cannot grasp its perching- 

 place, it sleeps bolt upright, often on one leg. If it is disturbed and driven 

 from its hiding-place, it seeks the nearest shelter from the sunlight, and 

 all the little birds in the neighbourhood, conscious of its powerlcssness to 

 catch them in the daytime, fly after it and mob it most impertinently. 

 But when the dusk of evening comes on, and " impudence '' has gone to 

 bed, " dignity " comes out from his hiding-place, and woe be to any little 

 bird roosting in an exposed position on his beat ! There is something 

 weird in the silent flight of the Barn-Owl, as with measured but noiseless 

 beat of wing he crosses and recrosses your path, looking unnaturally 

 large in the half-light, or skims before you over the grass, ever and 

 anon dropping down on some unfortunate mouse or rat, which he bears 

 away in triumph to his lair, quickly returning to quarter the ground 

 regularly backwards and forwards over his favourite hunting-fields. How 

 successful he is is amply proved by the bushels of pellets which he dis- 

 gorges in or under the nesting-place. My friend Mr. Frank Norgate 

 once found twenty dead rats in a Barn-Owl's nest, all fresh killed ! And 

 yet the stupid farmer will slay him if he can, and nail his body against the 

 barn-door, under the delusion that he will eat his pigeons ! Both the 

 gamekeeper and his master are his sworn foes, one generally as ignorant of 

 his usefulness and as indifferent to his fate as the other. Norgate tells 

 me that he has generally found by an examination of the pellets that each 

 bird seems to have his favourite food. Those under one nest are often all 

 mice, those under another all rats. Each pellet contains the indigestible 

 remains of two, and sometimes of three animals. The wing-cases of beetles 

 are also found in the pellets, but very seldom. Out of seven hundred 

 pellets of this Owl, which were carefully examined by Dr. Altum, remains 

 were found of 16 bats, 2513 mice, 1 mole, and 22 birds, of which 19 were 

 sparrows. The Barn-Owl is undoubtedly the farmer's best friend. Out 

 of between thirty and forty nests which Norgate has had an opportunity 



