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HABITS OF THE OWL, STMIX FLAMMEA, IN COOTINEMEOT. 



By H. Ullyett. 



In October 1863, I had two young barn owls brought me, not yet 

 fully fledged although it was so late in the ^'^ear. One of them died in a few 

 days but its companion is still alive. It is not very tame ; being probably 

 too old when taken from the nest. Its appetite is very voracious ; one 

 evening when I had had it about a fortnight, it took six full grow^n mice for 

 supper, and would have eaten more if I had had them ; it swallowed them all 

 whole. But it does not (as naturalists say) invariably swallow them head 

 first, I have seen them disappear tail foremost. When any live prey is given 

 it always seizes it by the head and neck, and it is dead almost directly, 

 apparently strangled. After a short scream the victim remains perfectly 

 quiet and resigned. It has eaten frogs occasionally, and black slugs, but 

 rejects grey ones. Once it attempted to swallow a greenfinch whole, after 

 plucking off the head and larger wing feathers ; it took two or three minutes 

 but was at length successful for it disappeared and the owl closed its mouth, 

 but shortly after it was disgorged and plucked to pieces. When the owl has 

 more food than it requires for present use it stores it up in a corner. The 

 cat occasionally gets in and purloins it, but the rightful owner takes it very 

 coolly, stares very hard, but as the Irishman remarks " that is all he 

 says.'' The fur and feathers are of course thrown up in pellets ; these are 

 generally about an inch and a half long, and three quarters of an inch in 

 diameter ; when it is fed on raw meat only, these pellets are still thrown up, 

 and I find them then to consist of sand, gravel, and other things that have 

 been strewed on the floor of his cage. The snapping noise the owl makes 

 when displeased is not simply a sharp closing of the mandibles ; they are 

 brought nearly together with the tongue out at one side ; the madibles are 

 then pressed, the tongue is withdrawn suddenly, and this produces a snap. 

 My bird makes a noise at night something like the twittering of a swallow on 

 the roof, but not quite so shriU. It never drinks although water has been 

 plentifully supplied. It has not moulted its large feathers since I have had 

 it, but aU the small downy ones were changed in the autumn. 



High Wycombe. 



No. 61, July ], c 



