54 
NATURAL HISTORY 
fpring. But a piece of addrefs, which they fliew when they re- 
turn loaded, (hould not, I think, be paffed over in filence. — As 
they take their prey with their claws, fo they carry it in their claws 
to their neft: but, as the feet are neceflary in their afccnt under 
the tiles, they conftantly perch firft on the roof of the chancel, and 
fhift the nioufe 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 rifmg 
under the eaves. 
White owls feem not (but in this I am not pofitive) to hoot at 
all : all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the 
wood kinds. The white owl does indeed fnore and hifs in a tre- 
mendous manner ; and thefe menaces well anfwer the intention of 
intimidating : for I have known a whole village up in arms on 
fuch an occafion, imagining the church-yard to be full of goblins 
and fpeflres. White owls alfo often fcream horribly as they fly along ; 
from this fcreaming probably arofe the common people's imaginary 
fpecies of fcreech-oivl, which they fuperftitioufly think attends the 
windows of dying perfons. The plumage of the remiges of the 
wings of every fpecies of owl that I have yet examined is remarkably 
foft and pliant. Perhaps it may be neceflary that the wings of 
thefe birds fliould not make much refiftance or rufhing, that they 
may be enabled to ileal through the air unheard upon a nimble 
and watchful quarry. 
While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to mention 
what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts. As they 
were grubbing a vaft hollow pollard-alh that had been the 
manfion of owls for centuries, he difcovered at the bottom a mafs 
of matter that at firft he could not account for. After fome exa- 
mination, he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice 
(and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping together 
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