PLATE XLIX. 
The common Barn Owl. 
IThIS is a Bird well known, and much valued by farmers, as they are of ufe in deftroying mice 
in their barns and granaries, in which places, as well as in hollow trees and holes in church walls, 
they frequently build their nefts. It is a property peculiar to thefe birds, that, as foon as the firft 
brood are capable of feeding themfelves, the old one drives them out of the neft, that fhe may lay 
more eggs in the place they occupied, and on which fhe fits again, the young flanding round her on 
the edge of the nefl : when this fecond brood is hatched and have like ftrength with the firfl, they 
are alfo driven away to make room for a third, the old ones procuring food for them all till about 
the middle of Augult, when they take their flight together ; and though they are by this time well 
feathered, yet a fine down, long enough almofl to hide the body covers them over, but goes oIF 
gradually, and leaves them thus beautifully marked. Tame Owls are fed on raw lean beef and 
other meats, they are accuflomed very early to make a kind of hilhng, fimilar to that of a goofe, 
but do not begin hooting till the winter approaches, when they may be heard at a confiderable dif- 
tance, anfwering each other for whole nights together. They feldom make their appearance by day, 
as they cannot fee fo well then as by twilight, but if they do go out at that feafon they are purfued 
by numbers of fmall birds, who, though they dare not come near them, continue to follow and teaze 
them as they do other birds of prey. 
No. XVII. 
