268 
WHITE, OR BARN OWL. 
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 which, though large, 
they are scarcely noticeable ; the nose is blunt ; the colour of 
the back is dark brown, that of the belly, hoary ; the fur is 
long, and extremely fine ; the hind feet are placed very far 
back, and are also short ; the eyes exceeding small. This 
mischievous creature is a great pest to the meadows, burrowing 
in them in every direction; but is particularly injurious to 
the embankments raised along the river, perforating them in 
numerous directions, and admitting the water, which afterwards 
effects dangerous breaches, inundating large extents of these 
low grounds, — and thus they become the instruments of their 
own destruction. In their general figure they bear great 
resemblance to the common musk rat, and, like them, swim 
and dive well. They feed on the bulbous roots of plants, and 
also on garlic, of which they are remarkably fond. 
Another favourite prey of most of our Owls is the bat, one 
species of which is represented at fig. 4, as it hung during the day 
in the woods where I found it. This also appears to be a nonde- 
script. The length of this bat, from the nose to the tip of the tail, 
is four inches; the tail itself is as long as the body, but generally 
curls up inwards; the general colour is a bright iron gray, the fur 
being of a reddish cream at bottom, then strongly tinged with 
lake, and minutely tipt with white ; the ears are scarcely half 
an inch long, with two slight valves ; the nostrils are somewhat 
tubular ; fore teeth, in the upper jaw none, in the lower four, 
not reckoning the tusks; the eyes are very small black points; 
the chin, upper part of the breast, and head, are of a pale 
reddish cream colour ; the wings have a single hook or claw 
each, and are so constructed, that the animal may hang either 
with its head or tail downward. I have several times found 
two hanging fast locked together behind a leaf, the hook of 
one fixed in the mouth of the other ; the hind feet are furnished 
with five toes, sharp-clawed ;. the membrane of the wings is 
dusky, shafts, light brown ; extent, twelve inches. In a cave, 
not far from Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, I found a number of 
