160 J. B. CLELAND. 
White’ has recorded the results of an examination of the 
pellets or casts of two of the last-mentioned species, the 
Screech or Barn Owl, from the Adelaide district. He says 
that this species, in common with other owls, lives largely 
on mice, rats, young rabbits, small birds, and night-flying 
| insects, and also on bats and frogs. The pellets were found 
under trees where the birds had been roosting. As regards 
one of the owls dealt with by Captain White, 172 complete 
or nearly complete pellets, and 109 partly broken up or 
loose skulls were found in six months under one tree. He 
estimates, from an examination made of seven pellets that 
were disintegrated for the purpose (the rest being kept for 
Museum purposes), and from other data, that during a year 
this. owl would destroy approximately 640 sparrows, 64 
starlings, 1600 mice, and 60 young rabbits. In the seven 
pellets were respectively: Four mice; two mice, four frogs 
and a jew lizard; two mice and seven frogs; one mouse and 
one young rabbit; one mouse and two sparrows; three mice 
and one sparrow; and three mice, one sparrow and one frog. 
In the case of the second owl, which had roosted a few | 
yards from a house, it was estimated that the pellets, which 
had accumulated for certainly not more than a year, con- 
tained the remains of 465 sparrows, 10 starlings, 80 mice 
and 5 rats. Three pellets, disintegrated and examined, 
showed as follows :—Four mice and one sparrow; three mice 
and one sparrow; and three sparrows. 
North? mentions definitely field mice or mice, presumably 
Mus musculus, as having been found in the stomachs or as 
constituting part of the food of the following Australian 
birds :—Circus assimilis Jard. and Selby, Spotted Harrier; 
Elanus axillaris (Lath.), Black-shouldered Kite; HE. scrip- 
tus Gould, Letter-winged Kite; Hieracidea orientalis Gray, 
White, The South Aust. Ornithologist, II., pt. 4, p. 90. 
2 North, Nests and Eggs of Birds found Breeding in Australia, 
Vol. III. 
