BARN 0 WL. 
255 
an old hollow stub which stood near a cracker’s shanty just south of Haulover Canal. It 
is true, that thore were only two houses for twenty-five miles, on that side of Indian River 
and, as these were both occupied, the birds could not well find a suitable building in which 
to place their nests, even if they had been so inclined, but I think that breeding in cavities 
of trees or rocks must have been the original manner of nesting many years ago, while Au¬ 
dubon even found their eggs on the ground on some islands off Texas. The author just 
mentioned also states that they inhabited the old fort at St. Augustine, which is, without 
doubt, an established breeding ground with them for I found them inhabiting the place 
during my first visit to the Ancient City, in 1869, and Mr. L. L. Thaxter obtained a young 
bird, about the first of April, the same year, which, although fully fledged, was scarcely 
able to fly. 
It will be remembered that this fort of which I speak, is very old for it was erected 
by the order of the Spanish Governer, Menendez, about the year 1565; therefore, it is one 
of the most time-honored structures of the kind in the United States. The walls are quite 
thick and a few years before my visit, a secret cell was discovered in them which, not only 
contained instruments of torture, but also the remains of a human skeleton; suggestive rel¬ 
ics of the dark days of Spanish tyranny. Adjoining this gloomy inner prison, is a larger 
apartment, celebrated as being the cell in which the Seminole Chief, Wild Cat, was con¬ 
fined and from which he escaped by forcing his way through a window, so small, that, 
previous to his attempt, no one supposed that it was possible for a human being to gain an 
exit by it. This orifice forms a place of ingress and egress for the Barn Owls. How long 
these birds have used this opening as a passage to their homes is impossible to conjecture 
but, beyond a doubt, the ancestors of the present occupants heard the groans of the French 
Huguenots, who were confined in the dungeon by Menendez sojne three hundred gears ago. 
These Owls, through a succession of generations, must have become accustomed to the 
sounds of war for the old fort has been besieged no less than seven times during the three 
centuries of its existence but has been taken only once, when the stars and stripes replaced 
the stars and bars during the last war. Another breeding place of these Owls is the Old 
Lookout, a deserted ruin which stands on a small island in the Mantanzas River, near the 
inlet, and which was erected about the same year that the fort was built. 
The Barn Owls, though not noisy birds, are capable of producing cries so loud and 
shrill that they may be termed shreaks; sounds well calculated to awaken the fears of the 
ignorant. In fact, the uneducated class of Florida look upon the White Owls, as they call 
this species, with suspicious awe and will seldom disturb their nests or eggs. This spe¬ 
cies appears to see well by day and probably the same remark may be applied to all Owls; 
but this subject will be discussed to a greater length in the succeeding pages. I once start¬ 
ed one from a bunch of live-oaks in Smithville, North Carolina. It rose some distance 
from me, too far, in fact, to shoot, then, as if it wished to obtain a nearer view, turned to 
fly back again, when a friend who was accompaning me, fired, but, as the bird was then 
too far away for the shot to have any effect, it merely circled, and flew rapidly away, mov¬ 
ing as steadily as does the Snowy or Great Homed in the daylight, for both of these birds 
can then fly remarkably well. 
