  After many years’ patient preaching, the Barn Owl is at last beginning to be recognised as a friend to be encouraged, rather than as an enemy to be slain, and it is now on the increase throughout England, Wales, and Ireland. In Scotland it has always been local in the south and rare in the north. The species is strictly nocturnal, and darkness has usually fallen before it sallies forth from its hiding-place in a barn, an old church tower, or a hollow tree. It feeds almost entirely on rats, mice, and such small deer, and rarely takes any small birds, as they are always securely roosting by the time the Barn Owl comes out. From its habits of choosing barns and old buildings, this species more than any other is deserving of man’s protection, since its favourite hunting-grounds are round the farm-yards, where it destroys those vermin that are of most immediate nuisance to the farmer. The note is a harsh high-pitched scream, which has earned for it the name of “Screech Owl,” but when in its hole it makes a heavy snoring sound, and has also a curious habit of waving its head from side to side. When seen from above down a dark hole, the motion being just dimly visible, it has a very uncanny appearance. BARN OWL The eggs, oval in shape and pure white like those of all Owls, are laid without any attempt at a nest. They are generally laid in clutches of two, at intervals of some days, so that four or six young of varying ages are generally found in the nest together. Unlike most of the other Owls, the first plumage of the young is composed of true feathers, whereas in most of the other species the young are at first clothed, with the exception of the wings and tail, in a plumage of downy feathers, which after being worn for a short time is exchanged for the full plumage. The general colour above is buffish orange, minutely speckled and vermiculated with grey. The under parts are white, sometimes slightly buffish on the chest, and with a few minute black specks. The sexes are alike, but the female is said to be more speckled on the under parts. The young resemble the adults. Length 13·5 in.; wing 11·25 in. |
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