THE WHITE OR BARN OWL. 61 
to put away at least half-a-dozen mice one after the other; digestion, too, is. 
marvellously rapid. A tame White Owl, after it had been fed up for the day, 
nevertheless managed to swallow thirteen mice that unexpectedly arrived as a 
present! Besides the numbers of mice that they devour, many are also stored 
away by the Owls in “larders”’ by the side of their nests; representatives of four 
distinct species of mice, all equally destructive to field and garden crops, were 
found in a single nest; and the pellets of Owls that have been examined by 
naturalists have been found to be composed entirely of the remains of mice, thus 
proving the useful services rendered by these birds. Tame Owls, when food is. 
given to them and they are not hungry, will always secrete it in some corner. 
But in spite of the good performed by the Barn Owl there is, perhaps, hardly 
any other bird that is so persecuted, and so ungratefully repaid. When they 
cannot find any other excuse keepers will say they kill them because they are 
“unlucky There is no bird more commonly found stuffed and distorted in a 
case in cottages and farm houses throughout the land than this poor Owl, the 
writer has always made it his endeavour to plead for and to protect. Then too, there 
is the wretched fashion of turning the masks, wings, and tails of these birds into 
fire-screens, and the still more senseless decoration of ladies’ hats with their soft 
and downy feathers. There is hardly any season of the year when specimens of 
the four common English Owls, and chiefly of the Barn Owl, may not be noticed 
hanging up for sale in Leadenhall market, in London, and on inquiring for what 
purpose they are bought, the answer has been given to the writer, ‘‘ These, sir, 
are fancy birds, people buy them to have them stuffed.’ No wonder rats and 
1” 
mice multiply, and in some parts of the country occasion great damage and loss, 
when all the rural police who would have looked after them have been so foolishly 
removed! ‘The once familiar Barn Owl is now but too rarely seen flying low over 
the hay-fields at dusk, and quartering them like a setter, every now and then 
checking its flight to drop with fatal pounce upon its prey; or beating the farm 
buildings and rick yards, next taking the round of the orchard fence, faithfully 
performing its useful and valuable work that should bespeak its grateful protection ! 
In severe winters, especially after long continued snow, numerous Barn Owls 
perish from the cold and starvation; and their frozen bodies, reduced to mere bone 
and feather, may be picked up lying on the surface of the snow. In their 
extremity they will enter houses for shelter, only too often to be ejected by timid 
and ignorant people who superstitiously regard them as bearers of ill luck! These 
Owls can only endure a temperate climate, and our winters are sometimes too. 
severe for them. 
Although usually a recluse, preferring its “‘solitary reign” in some ‘“‘ivy-mantled. 
