126 THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
The Rev. Arthur Kaye, the present vicar of Selborne, 
tells us that there are now no barn-owls nesting in Sel- 
borne Church, access to the old nesting-place having been 
stopped when the church was restored some twenty years 
ago. 
In spite of White's remark^ the young are easily 
reared, and will feed on birds, fresh meat, and even fish, 
quite as readily as on mice and rats, and are very fond of 
water. 
The whereabouts of a nest of young barn-owls may 
easily be discovered by the continued snoring or hissing 
noise they make during the night, and nothing is more 
weird than the appearance of four or five young ones 
staring solemnly down, with their black eyes and white 
faces, from a dark hole in a tree. 
Four, five, or six eggs are usually laid, but an instance 
is known in the county where eight were found together.. 
In 1885, from a nest at Laverstoke, three eggs were taken 
on April 6th, four days later two were taken, and again 
three on June 25th ; on August 4th there were four young 
in the nest — the youngest about a day old, and the others 
each a few days older than the other — and one egg which 
hatched a day or two later. The eldest bird flew on 
September i8th, and the youngest on September 26th. 
In this year also another pair had three young fully- 
grown on June 3rd, and on September 6th the same pair 
had another brood half-grown. 
The young are blind for three or four days after 
hatching. The only sound uttered by this species, besides 
the curious sounds emitted by the young, is the wild 
screech, from which it gets one of its local names. It 
never hoots. 
' Letter xi. to Pennant. Selborne. September 9th, 1767. 
