*54
fpring. But a piece of addrefs, which they fliew when they return
loaded, (hould not, I think, be palled over in lilence.—As
they take their prey with their claws, fo they carry it in their claws
to their neft: but, as the feet are neceflary in their afcent under
the tiles, they conftantly perch find on the roof of the chancel, and
Ihift the moufe from their claws to their bill, that the feet may be
at liberty to, take hold of the plate on the wall as they are riling
under the eaves.
White owls feem not (but in this I am not pofitive) to hoot at
a ll: all that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the.
wood kinds. The white owl does indeed fnore and hifs in a tremendous
manner; jmd thefe menaces well anfwer the intention of
intimidating: for I have known a whole village,,up in arms on.
fuch an oecafion, imagining the church-yard to be full of goblins
and fpedres, White owls alfo often fcream horribly as they fly along;
from this fcreaming probably arofe the common people’s imaginary
fpecies of fcreech-<nvl, which they fuperilitioufly think attends the
windows of dying perfons. The plumage of the remiges of the
wings of every fpecies of owl that I have yet examined is remarkably
foft and pliant. Perhaps it may be neceflary that the Wings o f
thefe birds Ihould not make much refiftance or rulhing, that they
may be enabled to fteal through the air unheard upon a nimble
and watchful quarry..
While I am talking of owls, it may not be improper to- mention,
what I was told by a gentleman of the county of Wilts. As they
were grubbing a vaft hollow pollard-afh that had been the-
manfion of owls for centuries, he difcovered at the bottom a mafs.
• f matter that at firft he could not account for. After fome examination,
he found that it was a congeries of the bones of mice
(and perhaps of birds and bats) that had been heaping together
for;
for ages, being call up in pellets out of the crops of many genera-
.tions of inhabitants. For owls call up the bones, fur, and feathers,
of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes,
he told me, that there were bufhels of this kind of fubftance.
When brown ovyls hoot their throats fwell as big as an hen’s egg.
I have known an owl of dfls fpecies live a full year without any
water. Perhaps the cafe may be the fame with all birds of prey.
When owls fly they ftretch out their legs behind them as a balance
to their large heavy heads : for as moft nodturnal birds have large
eyes and ears they muft have large heads to contain them. Large
eyes I prefume are neceflary to colled): every ray of light, and,
large concave ears to command the fmalleft degree of found
, or noiie. I amj &c.
It will be proper to premife here that the fixteenth, eighteenth, twentieth,
and twenty-firft letters have been publilhed already in the Philofophical Tranfac-
tions: but as nicer obfervation has furniflied feveral corrections and additions, it is
hoped that the republicatiori of them will'not give offencej eipecially as thefe
Iheets would be very imperfeift without them, and as they will be new to
many readers who had no opportunity o f feeing them when they made their firft
appearance.
The hirmdines are a moil: inoffenfive, harmlefs, entertaining,
focial, and ufeful tribe o f birds: they touch no fruit in our gardens
; delight, all except one fpecies, in attaching themfelves to
our houfes; amufe us with their migrations, fongs, and marvellous
agility; and clear our outlets from the annoyances o f gnats and
■ other troublefome infedts. Some diftridts in the fouth feas, near
X 2 Guiaquil,