Page:The birds of Tierra del Fuego - Richard Crawshay.djvu/91

Rh heard shrieking here perpetually on the portico, and in the large sycamore trees near the house," he says. "It shrieks equally when the moon shines and when the night is rough and cloudy; and he who takes an interest in it may here see the Barn Owl the night through when there is a moon; and he may hear it shriek, when perching on the trees, or when it is on wing. He may see it and hear it shriek, within a few yards of him, long before dark; and again, often after daybreak, before it takes its final departure to its wonted resting place."

So much at home were these Owls at Walton, that at night they often came into Waterton's room; and after flitting to and fro on wing so soft and silent that they are scarcely heard, they would take their departure from the same window by which they had entered.

The dovecot even was frequented by them, without harm or alarm to the inmates.

In more modern times. Lord Lilford thus demonstrates the folly of destroying the Barn Owl, not only in the interest of game but of agriculture:—"I have examined hundreds of pellets cast up by this species in and under their nesting-places, and never discovered either bones or feathers of any game-bird, the castings consisting mainly of the fur and bones of small mammalia, with feathers and skulls of seed-eating birds, and occasionally a few bones and scales of small fishes."

Of its feeding capacity he says that he saw an old pair bring food to their brood "seventeen times in half an hour from a rick-yard near their nest." He saw one about half-grown swallow nine full-grown house mice in rapid succession, till the tail of the ninth stuck out of his mouth, yet within three hours the bird was hungry again, and was barely satisfied with four more.

"This Owl begins to lay early in April," Lilford says, "and begins to sit as soon as one or two eggs are laid, though the full complement is seldom less than six or seven. Young Barn Owls in all stages from newly -hatched down- clad infancy to full feathering may be found in one and the same nest at the same