BIRDS OF PREy. 179 
these owls when captured. The food of the barn- 
owl is mice, and almost exclusively so, and it need 
not be said, therefore, that it is not only a harmless 
bird, but an eminently useful one. 
The Long-eared or Cat-owl is a well-known spe- 
cies that spends the day in a hollow tree or in dense 
evergreens. The cry at night has been fancied to 
resemble that of a cat, hence one of its common 
names. Nuttall speaks of the cry as plaintive or a 
“hollow moaning,” adding that when many birds are 
together the sound is “troublesome.” We should 
think it might be. 
The following from Warren’s “Birds of Pennsyl- 
vania” is not only instructive but suggestive. A cor- 
respondent informs the author that 
“« For over twenty years I have had congregated in my lawn from 
fifty to seventy-five owls. They are peaceable and quiet; only on 
rare occasions would you know one was about. On dull days and 
foggy evenings they were flying about in all directions. Never in 
all that time have I missed any poultry or have they inflicted any 
injury on anything of value. 
“The first I noticed of their presence was the discovery of quite 
a pile of what appeared to be mice hair and bones, and on investi- 
gation found the Norway fir was the roosting-place of to me at that 
time a vast number of owls. They had ejected the bolus of hair 
and bones apparently of an army of tree-eating destructive mice, 
aiding the fruit-grower against one of the worst and most inveterate 
enemies. . . . Their merits would fill sheets, the demerits 727.” 
Dr. Warren remarks,— 
“ Unhappily, during the past four or five years there has been a 
rapid decrease in the number of these birds in many localities in 
Pennsylvania; this diminution, I judge, is largely due to the fact 
that the stuffed heads of these harmless and beneficial owls make an 
attractive ornament for lovely woman’s head-wear.” 
