BARN-OWL. 
125 
It inhabits indiscriminately buildings and hollow trees, 
and is the only owl which nests in the former, though the 
other species occasionally roost in them. 
In the Isle of Wight it sometimes frequents the cliffs, 
and Mr. Poole tells us that a pair breed in the inland 
cliff at Hatchet Close, near Shanklin, and at several other 
places. 
Dr. Cowper^ has " seen its nest in old ivy growing on 
the side of a dwelling-house, the nest itself not being ten 
yards distant from one of the streets " — in Shanklin. 
Gilbert White describes the habits of a pair, which bred 
under the eaves of Selborne Church,^ and during the 
nesting-season, " which lasts the summer through. . . . 
About an hour before sunset (for then the mice begin to 
run), they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round 
the hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them' 
which seem to be their only food. In this irregular 
country we can stand on an eminence and see them beat 
the fields over like a setting dog, and often drop down in 
the grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my 
watch for an hour together, and have found that they 
return to their nest, the one or the other of them, about 
once in five minutes. . . . But a piece of address, 
which they show when they return loaded, should not, I 
think, be passed over in silence. As they take their prey 
with their claws, so they carry it in their claws to their 
nest, but, as their feet are necessary in their ascent under 
the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the 
chancel, and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, 
that the feet may be at liberty to take hold of the plate on 
the wall as they are rising under the eaves." 
' *' Hants Court Guide." 
' Letter xv. to Barrington. Selborne. July 8th, 1773. 
