SELBORNE, _July_ 8_th_, 1773.
Dear Sir,--Some young men went down lately to a pond on the verge of
Wolmer Forest to hunt flappers, or young wild-ducks, many of which they
caught, and, among the rest, some very minute yet well-fledged wild-fowls
alive, which upon examination I found to be teals. I did not know till
then that teals ever bred in the south of England, and was much pleased
with the discovery: this I look upon as a great stroke in natural
history.
We have had, ever since I can remember, a pair of white owls that
constantly breed under the eaves of this church. As I have paid good
attention to the manner of life of these birds during their season of
breeding, which lasts the summer through, the following remarks may not
perhaps be unacceptable:--About an hour before sunset (for then the mice
begin to run) they sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the
hedges of meadows and small enclosures for them, which seem to be their
only food. In this irregular country we can stand on an eminence and see
them beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down in the
grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an hour
together, and have found that they return to their nest, the one or the
other of them, about once in five minutes; reflecting at the same time on
the adroitness that every animal is possessed of as far as regards the
well-being of itself and offspring. But a piece of address, which they
show when they return loaded, should not, I think, be passed over in
silence. As they take their prey with their claws, so they carry it in
their claws to their nest; but, as the feet are necessary in their ascent
under the tiles, they constantly perch first on the roof of the chancel,
and shift the mouse from their claws to their bill, that their feet may
be at liberty to take hold of the plate on the wall as they are rising
under the eaves.
White owls seem not (but in this I am not positive) to hoot at all; all
that clamorous hooting appears to me to come from the wood kinds. The
white owl does indeed snore and hiss in a tremendous manner; and these
menaces well answer the intention of intimidating; for I have known a
whole village up in arms on such an occasion, imagining the churchyard to
be full of goblins and spectres. White owls also often scream horribly
as they fly along; from this screaming probably arose the common people's
imaginary species of screech-owl, which they superstitiously think
attends the windows of dying persons. The plumage of the remiges of the
wings of every species of owl that I have yet examined is remarkably soft
and pliant. Perhaps it may be necessary that the wings of these birds
should not make much resistance or rushing, that they may be enabled to
steal 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 vast
hollow pollard-ash that had been the mansion of owls for centuries, he
discovered at the bottom a mass of matter that at first he could not
account for. After some 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 ages, being cast up in pellets out of the crops of many
generations of inhabitants. For owls cast up the bones, fur, and
feathers of what they devour, after the manner of hawks. He believes, he
told me, that there were bushels of this kind of substance.
When brown owls hoot their throats swell as big as a hen's egg. I have
known an owl of this species live a full year without any water. Perhaps
the case may be the same with all birds of prey. When owls fly they
stretch out their legs behind them as a balance to their large heavy
heads, for as most nocturnal birds have large eyes and ears they must
have large heads to contain them. Large eyes, I presume, are necessary
to collect every ray of light, and large concave ears to command the
smallest degree of sound or noise.