126 
WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
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 with small 
round spots of blackish; thighs the same, legs long, thinly co- 
vered 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 wing is tinged with bright orange brown. The aged bird is 
more white; in some, the spots of black on the breast are want- 
ing, and the colour 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 swallow the mouse entire; the 
bones, hair, and other indigestible parts, are afterwards dis- 
charged 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 of winter, resort to the meadows below Phi- 
ladelphia, and to the marshes along the seashore, for the pur- 
pose of feeding on these little animals, some account of them 
may not be improper in this place. Fig. 3 represents the Mea- 
dow-mouse drawn by the same scale, viz. reduced to one half 
its natural dimensions. This species appears not to have been 
taken notice of by Turton, in his translation of Gmelin’s Lin- 
naeus. From the nose to the insertion of the tail it measures 
four inches; the tail is between three quarters and an inch long, 
hairy, and usually curves upwards; the fore feet are short, five- 
toed, the inner toe very short, but furnished with a claw; hind 
feet also five-toed; the ears are shorter than the fur, through 
