266 
WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
species on his head. To this day the Kalmucs continue the 
custom on all great festivals ; and some tribes have an idol in 
form of an Owl, to which they fasten the real legs of one.”* 
This species is rarely found in Pennsylvania in summer. 
Of its place and manner of building, I am unable, from my 
own observation, to speak. The bird itself has been several 
times found in the hollow of a tree, and was once caught in a 
barn in my neighbourhood. European writers inform us that 
it makes no nest, but deposits its eggs in the holes of walls, 
and lays five or six, of a whitish colour ; it is said to feed on 
mice and small birds, which, like the most of its tribe, it 
swallows whole, and afterwards emits the bones, feathers, and 
other indigestible parts, at its mouth, in the form of small 
round cakes, which are often found in the empty buildings it 
frequents. During its repose it is said to make a blowing 
noise resembling the snoring of a man.f 
It is distinguished in England by various names, the Barn 
Owl, the Church Owl, Gillihowlet and Screech Owl. In the 
lowlands of Scotland it is universally called the Hoolet. 
The White or Barn Owl is fourteen inches long, and 
upwards of three feet six inches in extent ; bill, a whitish 
horn colour, longer than is usual among its tribe ; space sur- 
rounding each eye remarkably concave, the radiating feathers 
meeting in a high projecting ridge, arching from the bill 
upwards ; between these lies a thick tuft of bright tawny 
feathers, that are scarcely seen, unless the ridges be separated ; 
face, white, surrounded by a border of narrow, thickset, 
velvety feathers, of a reddish cream colour at the tip, pure 
silvery white below, and finely shafted with black ; whole 
upper parts, a bright tawny yellow, thickly sprinkled with 
whitish and pale purple, and beautifully interspersed with 
larger drops of white, each feather of the back and wing- 
coverts ending in an oblong spot of white, bounded by black ; 
head, large, tumid; sides of the neck, pale yellow ochre, 
thinly sprinkled with small touches of dusky ; primaries and 
* Arctic Zoology , p. 235. f Bewick, i. p. 90. 
