My Littic Owls. 
247 
prey led mc to suppose that she was suffering from some 
obstruction in the stomach (I believe I am right in saying 
that an Owl has no crop). I tried various remedies and, al- 
though she rallied slightly when placed in a very hot room, 
the improvement was only temporary and after some days 
she died, 'iiic post mortem showed that she was a victim 
of tuberculosis— a common ailment among captive Owls, but 
one from which I had hoped that carci'ul feeding and scru- 
pulous cleanliness would have kept mine free and I was 
not a little disappointed. 
Before her death Kirrie had had two companions of 
her own kind, with neither of whom she was at all inclined 
to be friendly. 
The first was a poor little fellow that I picked up 
with a bad injury to the head, evidently due to the attack 
of some large bird which came across him soon after he had 
left the nest. The sight of one eye was completely destroyed 
and the eye itself was terribly inflamed. He never appeared 
to be in pain, but I rather think his brain was affected, as 
his behaviour was peculiar in many ways. ' After the first day 
he fed readily from my hand, but took no notice of food 
placed on the ground in front of him. He was absolutely 
without fear of anything, but he never uttered a sound, not 
even when he saw and heard Kirrie whom I imagmed he would 
mistake for one of his parents. He was very active especially 
in the evening, and flew strongly, though he often struck the 
walls of the room which he appeared unable to see. On the 
ground, however, he avoided obstacles, and if I called to him 
from the opposite side of the room he came across to me ih 
a hesitating fashion, which showed that he was not entirely 
blind or deaf. He lived in this condition tor about a fort- 
night and then died rather suddenly while I was away from 
home. 
His successor was a bird of a very different stamp. 
She (for I am inclined to think it was a female) had been 
taken from the nest by one of the village boys and hand- 
reared. Unfortunately she must have been teased a good 
deal by her owner or his friends — it is a very easy thing 
to make a young Owl bad tempered— for when he grew tired 
