270 



WHITE OR BARN OWL. 



Its stomach contained the mangled carcasses of four large 

 meadow mice, hair, bones, and all. The common practice of 

 most owls is, after breaking the bones, to swallow the mouse 

 entire ; the bones, hair, and other indigestible parts, are after- 

 wards discharged from the mouth in large roundish dry balls, 

 that are frequently met with in such places as these birds 

 usually haunt. 



As the meadow mouse is so eagerly sought after by those 

 birds, and also by great numbers of hawks, which regularly, 

 at the commencement of winter, resort to the meadows below 

 Philadelphia, and to the marshes along the sea-shore, for the 

 purpose of feeding on these little animals, some account of 

 them may not be improper in this place. Fig. 3 represents 

 the meadow mouse drawn by the same scale, viz., reduced to 

 one half its natural dimensions. This species appears not to 

 have been taken notice of by Turton in the latest edition 

 of his translation of Linnaeus. From the nose to the insertion 

 of the tail, it measures four inches ; the tail is between three- 

 quarters and an inch long, hairy, and usually curves up- 

 wards ; the fore feet are short, five-toed, the inner toe very 

 short, but furnished with a claw ; hind feet also five-toed ; the 

 ears are shorter than the fur, through which, though large, 

 they are scarcely noticeable ; the nose is blunt ; the colour of 

 the back is dark brown, that of the belly, hoary ; the fur is 

 long, and extremely fine ; the hind feet are placed very far 

 back, and are also short ; the eyes exceeding small. This mis- 

 chievous creature is a great pest to the meadows, burrowing 

 in them in every direction ; but is particularly injurious to 

 the embankments raised along the river, perforating them in 

 numerous directions, and admitting the water, which afterwards 

 effects dangerous breaches, inundating large extents of these 

 low grounds, — and thus they become the instruments of their 

 own destruction. In their general figure they bear great 

 resemblance to the common musk rat, and, like them, swim 

 and dive well. They feed on the bulbous roots of plants, and 

 also on garlic, of which they are remarkably fond. 



