314 



THE WHITE OR BARN OWL. 



[Sfrzx aluco^ Br is son ; Strix Jia77tmea, Lmn.) 



This most useful bird is unfortunately becoming some- 

 what rare, as almost every one's hand is against it. First, 

 the egg-collector offers a tempting premium for its rather 

 scarce eggs. Then there is a great demand for it from 

 bird stuffers, as it is a handsome object when well stuffed 

 and set up in a glass case. Lastly, gamekeepers make a 

 point of shooting it as it flies, about sunset or on moon- 

 light nights, beating the fields, as Gilbert White says, like 

 a setter, often dropping down in the grass or corn, and 

 hunting for mice, young rats, voles, and other pests. Game- 

 keepers appear to have an idea that owls of all kinds 

 should be exterminated as destroyers of game. It is only fair 

 to agriculturists to say that many of them recognise the 

 extreme usefulness of the Barn Owl, and do all they can to 

 preserve it. In many old barns in some counties, notably in 

 those in the south-west, there are owl-holes just under the 

 eaves, formed with ledges specially made for ingress and 

 egress. On the other hand there are some agriculturists 

 who do not appreciate the inestimable services of the Barn 

 Owl, and shoot it without mercy. Seebohm in his exhaustive 

 history of British birds holds that the Barn Owl is undoubtedly 

 the farmer's best friend. He gives an instance in which 

 twenty freshly killed rats were found in a Barn Owl's 

 nest. He also says that in 700 pellets " of this owl there 

 were found the remains of sixteen bats, 2,513 mice, one mole, 

 and 22 birds, of which nineteen were sparrows. The wing- 

 cases of beetles are also sometimes found in the "pellets."" 

 Yarrell states that the Barn Owl feeds on young rats, mice, 

 shrews, small birds, and insects, parts of all of which have 

 been recognised at different times on examination of the 

 " pellets." 



