WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
89 
mouth, in the form of small round cakes, which are often found in the 
empty buildings it fi-equents. During its repose it is said to make a 
blowing noise, resembling the snoring of a man.* 
It is distinguished in England by various names, the Barn Owl, the 
Church Owl, Gillihowlet and Sci-eecli Owl. In the lowlands of Scot- 
land it is universally called the Iloolet. 
The White or Barn Owl is fourteen inches long, and upwards of three 
feet six inches in extent; bill a Avhitish horn color, longer than is usual 
among its tribe ; space surrounding each eye remarkably concave, the 
radiating feathers meeting in a high projecting ridge, arching from the 
bill upwards ; between these lies a thick tuft of bright tawiiy feathers, 
that are scarcely seen unless the ridges be separated ; face white, sur- 
rounded by a border of narrow, thickset, velvety feathers, of a reddish 
cream color at the tip, pure silvery white beloAV, and finely shafted with 
black ; Avhole upper parts a bright tawny yellow, thickly sprinkled 
with whitish and pale purple, and beautifully interspersed with larger 
drops of white, each feather of the back and wing-coverts ending in an 
oblong spot of Avhite, bounded by black ; head large, tumid ; sides of the 
neck pale yellow ochre, thinly sprinkled with small touches of dusky ; 
primaries and secondaries the same, thinly barred and thickly sprinkled 
with dull purplish brown ; tail two inches shorter than the tips of the 
wings, even, or very slightly forked, pale yellowish, crossed with five 
bars of brown, and thickly dotted with the same ; whole lower parts pure 
white, thinly interspersed Avith small round spots of blackish ; thighs the 
same, legs long, thinly covered with short white down, nearly to the feet, 
which are of a dirty white, and thickly warted ; toes thinly clad with 
white hairs ; legs and feet large and clumsy. The ridge or shoulder of 
the wino; is tin";ed with bright orange brown. The ao;ed bird is more 
white ; in some, the spots of black on the breast are wanting, and the 
color below a pale yellow ; in others a pure white. 
The female measures fifteen inches .and a half in length, and three 
feet eight inches in extent ; is much darker above ; the lower parts 
tinged with tawny, and marked also with round spots of black. One of 
these was lately sent me, which was shot on the border of the meadows 
below Philadelphia. Its stomach contained the mangled carcasses of 
four large meadow mice, hair, bones and all. The common practice of 
most Owls is, after breaking the bones, to swalloAV the mouse entire ; the 
bones, hair, and other indigestible parts, are afterwards discharged from 
the mouth, in large roundish dry balls, that are frequently met with in 
such places as these birds usually haunt. 
As the Meadow-mouse is so eagerly sought after by those birds, and 
also by great numbers of Hawks, which regularly, at the commencement 
* Bewick, i., p. 90. 
