TAWNY OWL. 
2G5 
eggs is made, a general smoothing of the bottom 
of place of deposit, with the lining of a few slender 
sticks, straws, or grass. The eggs are from three 
to four in number, larger than any of the British 
Owls of a nearly similar size, nearly round, and 
pure white. (See Plate XXV. fig. 3.) 
The food of this Owl is more indiscriminate 
than that of our tw T o more common species, the 
White and Long-eared. It is a powerful bird, and 
will take young hares and rabbits ; we hare found 
the hones of one of them in castings, which, though 
we cannot affirm certainly, we are inclined to 
think were cast by this bird ; rats and the arvicolm 
are very favourite food, and the most common ; 
small birds are also taken, and the specimen from 
which we made the drawings for the illustration 
of the characters, contained the remains of a thrush. 
Fish are proved also to form a part of the prey of 
this bird. Mr Bloxam and Mr Bree both notice 
it, the latter writes, “ Some years since, several* 
young Owlst were taken from the nest, and placed 
in a yew tree in the Rectory Garden here ; in this 
situation the parent birds repeatedly brought them 
live fish, bull-heads, ( cottus gobio,) Loach, ( colitis 
barbatula.) Since the above period, I have on 
more than one occasion found the same fish, either 
* Loudon’s Mag. of Nat. Hist. vii. p. 146. 
+ Loudon’s Mag. of Nat. Hist. i. p. 179. 
