BRITISH BIRDS. 
II 
the claws. It frequents rocks, caverns, and ruined 
buildings, and makes its rudely constructed nest in 
the most retired places, and lays four or five eggs, 
spotted with white and yellow. It sees better in the 
day-time than other nocturnal birds, and it gives chace 
to small birds on the wing ; it likewise feeds on mice, 
which it tears in pieces with its bill and claws, and 
swallows them by morsels : it is said to pluck the birds 
before it eats them, in which it differs from almost all 
the other Owls. It would appear from the accounts of 
ornithologists that this bird is seldom seen in Britain. 
The drawing from which our cut was engraven, was 
taken from a specimen shot at Widdrington, in North- 
umberland, in January, 1813, and we feel much obliged 
to Mr Richard Rutledge Wingate, of Newcastle, for 
his drawing, and the aid it affords us, to give so cor- 
rect a representation of this birch 
