Barn Owl 227 
of eating. Bolting entire all the food they 
catch, head first, they digest only the nutritious 
portions of it. Then, bowing their heads and 
shaking them very hard, they eject the bones, 
claws, skin, hair and fur in matted pellets, with- 
out the least distress. Some children I know, 
who swallow their food in a hurry — cherry 
stones, grape skins, apple cores and all — need 
a similar, merciful digestive apparatus. 
Like the hawks, owls are devoted, life-long 
mates. The females are larger than the males. 
Some like to live in dense evergreens that hide 
them from teasing blue jays and other foes by 
day; some, like the barn owl, prefer towers, 
church steeples or the tops of barns and other 
buildings ; some hide in hollow trees or deserted 
woodpeckers’ holes, but all naturally prefer to 
take their long, daily naps where the sunlight 
does not penetrate. They live in their homes 
more hours than woodpeckers or any other 
birds. No doubt we pass by many sleeping 
owls without suspecting their presence. 
BARN OWL 
Called also: Monkey -faced Owl 
This is the shy, odd-looking, gray and white 
mottled owl with the triangular face and slim 
