60 WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 



tween three quarters and an inch long, hairy , and usually curves 

 upwards ; 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 scarce- 

 ly noticeable; the nose is blunt; the color 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 mischievous creature is a great pest to the 

 meadows, burrowing in them in every direction; but is particu- 

 larly injurious to the embankments raised along the river, perfo- 

 rating them in numerous directions and admitting the water which 

 afterwards increases to dangerous breaches, inundating large ex- 

 tents of these low grounds, and thus becoming the instruments of 

 their own destruction. In their general figure they bear great re- 

 semblance 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. 



Another favorite prey of most of our Owls is the bat, one spe- 

 cies of which is represented at fig. 4, as it hung during the day in 

 the woods where I found it. This also appears to be a nonde- 

 script. The length of this bat from the nose to the tip of the tail 

 is four inches; the tail itself is as long as the body, but generally 

 curls up inwards; the general color is a bright iron grey, the fur 

 being of a reddish cream at bottom, then strongly tinged with lake 

 and minutely tipt with white ; the ears are scarcely half an inch 

 long, with two slight valves; the nostrils are somewhat tubular; 

 fore teeth in the upper jaw, none, in the lower, four, not reckoning 

 the tusks; the eyes are very small black points; the chin, upper 

 part of the breast and head, are of a plain reddish cream color; 

 the wings have a single hook or claw each, and are so construct- 

 ed that the animal may hang either with its head or tail down- 

 ward. I have several times found two hanging fast locked toge- 

 ther behind a leaf, the hook of one fixed in the mouth of the other; 



