OWL. 
409 
the battlements of some ruined castle, or in the 
deep recess of some excavated rock, from whence it 
seldom ventures into the plains, but seeks its prey 
in the neighbourhood of its abode, increasing the 
natural horrors of the place by its frightful noc- 
turnal shrieks. 
The great-eared owl has been shot in Scotland 
and in Yorkshire ; but it is a very scarce bird in 
England, and by no means common in France. It 
is said, however, to abound in some parts of Europe 
and America, particularly about Hudson’s Bay, from 
whence it stretches as far as Kamtschatka, and even 
proceeds to the northward till it crosses the arctic 
circle. It is but little inferior in size to the eagle: the 
head and body are marked with lines and spots of 
black, brown, and rust colour ; the tail is short, and 
ribbed with dusky bars ; the thick legs are covered to 
the very end of the toes with soft light-brown fea- 
thers ; the claws are black, strong, and hooked. 
Moles, rabbits, rats, and mice, are equally the 
objects of this creature’s pursuit. Of these, the 
rabbit and the rat are too large to be managed at a 
mouthful ; but the moles and the mice are swal 
lowed whole, bones, hair, and all. Of this we are 
assured by Frisch, who had some of these birds 
alive. “ If mice were thrown to them, they crushed 
the bones with their bill, then swallowed them one 
after another, sometimes to the number of five.” 
After they have extracted all the nutriment from 
their food, the indigestible part of it is rejected 
through the bill in the shape of round pellets. 
