WHITE OE BAEN OWL. 
257 
repast.” All our records tend to shew that these 
small mammalia are the principal food of this 
useful bird, and the numbers destroyed nightly is 
very great. 
The nest is constructed at the bottom of the 
chosen spot of slender sticks, lined with grasses or 
straws, wool or hair being seldom an ingredient 
in its composition; the fabric is in general not 
bulky, and in some instances little more than what 
covers the surface is made use of. The eggs are 
rather round in form, and are pure white; the 
young, soon after being hatched, are covered with 
a very soft down of a snowy whiteness ; with 
increasing age, the yellow feathers of the upper 
parts gradually appear, and by the completion of 
the plumage, there is little difference from the 
perfect state of succeeding years. When intruded 
on in the nest, they throw themselves hack, hissing 
and snapping at the unwelcome visiter. 
When the White Owl has been roused from his 
resting place in the day, he flies most unsteadily ; 
he is “ not awake,” as it is often said at the time 
by ordinary spectators, and it is certain that in a 
clear day he does not recover or seem at ease in 
his flight, and, where the ground is tolerably open, 
may he almost kept up with by running. On 
such occasions, it is curious to see the crowd of 
small birds which flock around his flight ; the 
chaffinch is one of the most prominent aggressors, 
n 
