examine the pellets which it ejects
from its stomach in the place of its retreat. Every pellet contains from
four to seven skeletons of mice. In sixteen months from the time that the
apartment of the owl on the old gateway was cleaned out, there has been a
deposit of above a bushel of pellets.

The barn owl sometimes carries off rats. One evening I was sitting under a
shed, and killed a very large rat, as it was coming out of a hole, about
ten yards from where I was watching it. I did not go to take it up, hoping
to get another shot. As it lay there, a barn owl pounced upon it, and flew
away with it.

This bird has been known to catch fish. Some years ago, on a fine evening
in the month of July, long before it was dark, as I was standing on the
middle of the bridge, and minuting the owl by my watch, as she brought
mice into her nest, all on a sudden she dropped perpendicularly into the
water. Thinking that she had fallen down in epilepsy, my first thoughts
were to go and fetch the boat; but before I had well got to the end of the
bridge, I saw the owl rise out of the water with a fish in her claws, and
take it to the nest. This fact is mentioned by the late much revered and
lamented Mr. Atkinson of Leeds, in his _Compendium_, in a note, under the
signature of W., a friend of his, to whom I had communicated it a few days
after I had witnessed it.

I cannot make up my mind to pay any attention to the description of the
amours of the owl by a modern writer; at least the barn owl plays off no
buffooneris here, such as those which he describes. An owl is an owl all
the world over, whether under the influence of Momus, Venus, or Diana.

When farmers complain that the barn owl destroys the eggs of their pigeons,
they lay the saddle on the wrong horse. They ought to put it on the rat.
Formerly I could get very few young pigeons till the rats were excluded
effectually from the dovecot. Since that took place, it has produced a
great abundance every year, though the barn owls frequent it, and are
encouraged all around it. The barn owl merely resorts to it for repose and
concealment. If it were really an enemy to the dovecot, we should see the
pigeons in commotion as soon as it begins its evening flight; but the
pigeons heed it not: whereas if the sparrow-hawk or windhover should make
their appearance, the whole community would be up at once, proof
sufficient that the barn owl is not looked upon as a bad, or even a
suspicious, c