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 shew 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 the 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 church-yard to be full of goblins and spectres. White owls also often scream * Dr Haysham says, that the teal is now known to breed in the mosses about Carlisle. ED. + Colonel Montagu has remarked, that the wren returns with food to its offspring once in two minutes. The swallow generally feeds its young every second or third minute. - ED. Sir William Jardine says white owls do hoot, and that he has shot them in the act; and a correspondent in Loudon's Magazine says, "Owls which build in Attenborough Church, in this parish, sit on the turrets and hoot fearfully. An old white owl used to frequent a dovecot, not two hundred yards from where I am writing this, and, late in the evening, would sit at the top and utter its doleful cries."-ED. § Dr Richardson, in speaking of the great Virginian horned owl, 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 gives the following animated picture of its dismal unearthly cry. He says, "It is found in almost every quarter of the United States, and occurs in all parts of the fur countries. Its loud and full nocturnal cry, issuing from the gloomy recesses of the forest, bear some resemblance to the human voice, uttered in a hollow, sepulchral tone, and has been frequently productive of alarm to the traveller, of which an instance occurred within my own knowledge. A party of Scottish Highlanders, in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, happened, in a winter journey, to encamp after nightfall in a dense clump of trees, whose dark tops and lofty stems, the growth of centuries, gave a solemnity to the scene that had strongly tended to excite the superstitious feelings of the Highlanders. The effect was heightened by the discovery of a tomb, which, with a natural taste often exhibited by the Indians, had been placed in this secluded spot. Cur travellers, having finished their supper, were trimming their fire, preparatory to retiring to rest, when the slow and dismal notes of the horned owl fell on the ear with a startling nearness. None of them being acquainted with the sound, they at once concluded, that so unearthly a voice must be the moaning of the spirit of the departed, whose repose they supposed they had disturbed, by inadvertently making a fire of the wood of which the tomb had been constructed. They passed a tedious night of fear, and with the first dawn of day hastily quitted the ill-omened spot." Audubon describes the cry of this owl as fearful. He says, "It suddenly alights on the top of a fern-stake or a dead stump, shakes its feathers, arranges them, and utters a shriek so horrid that the woods around echo to its dismal sound. Now, it seems as if you heard the barking of a cur-dog; again, the notes are so rough and mingled together, that they might be mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person, striving in vain to call for assistance."-ED. OWLS SWALLOWS. 133 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. The hirundines are a most inoffensive, harmless, entertaining, social, and useful tribe of birds; they touch no fruit in our gardens; delight, all except one species, in attaching themselves to our houses; amuse us with their migrations, songs, and marvellous agility; and clear our outlets from the annoyances of gnats and other troublesome insects. Some districts in the South Seas, near Guiaquil,† are desolated, it seems, by the infinite swarms of venomous mosquitoes, which fill the air, and render those coasts insupportable. It would be worth inquiring, whether any species of hirundines is found in these regions. Whoever contemplates the myriads of insects that sport in the sunbeams of a summer evening in this country, will soon be convinced to what a degree our atmosphere would be choked with them were it not for the friendly intercourse of the swallow tribe. Predatory birds are endowed with the power of existing for a great length of time without food or water. In them, digestion seems to be carried on in a slow manner; and very different from this function in most other birds, as it is extremely rapid in the smaller species. Vultures after feeding may be seen in one unvaried position, patiently waiting till the work of digestion is completed, and the stimulus of hunger is renewed. If violently disturbed after a full meal, they are quite incapable of flight, until they have disgorged the contents of their stomach. -ED. See Ulloa's Travels. The wanton destruction of the swallow tribe is not only an act of great inhumanity, but also very impolitic, and can only be practised by persons who are defective either in the head or heart. The author of the Journal of a Naturalist expresses himself thus feelingly on the subject:"The sportsman's essaying his skill on the swallow race, that'skim the dimpled pool,' or harmless glide along the flowery mead, when, if successful, he consigns whole nests of infant broods to famine and to death, is pitiable indeed! No injury, no meditated crime, was ever imputed to these birds; they free our dwelling from multitudes of insects; their unsuspicious confidence and familiarity with man merit Many species of birds have their peculiar lice; but the hirundines alone seem to be annoyed with dipterous insects,* which infest every species, and are so large, in proportion to themselves, that they must be extremely irksome and injurious to them. These are the hippoboscæ hirundines, with narrow subulated wings, abounding in every nest; and are hatched by the warmth of the bird's own body during incubation, and crawl about under its feathers. A species of them is familiar to horsemen in the south of England, under the name of forest-fly, and, to some, of sidefly, from its running sideways, like a crab. It creeps under the tails and about the groins of horses, which, at their first protection, not punishment from him. The sufferings of their broods, when the parents are destroyed, should excite humanity and demand forbearance. I supplicate from the youthful sportsman his consideration for these most useful creatures. The positive good they do, the beneficial services they perform for us, by clearing the air of innumerable insects, ought to render them sacred, and secure them from our molestation. Without their friendly aid, the atmosphere we live in would scarcely be habitable by man. They feed entirely on insects, which, if not kept under by their means, would swarm and torment us like another Egyptian plague. The immense quantity of flies destroyed in a short space of time by one individual bird is scarcely to be credited by those who have not actual experience of the fact. I was once present when a swift was shot -I may as well confess the truth-I myself (then a thoughtless youth) the perpetrator of the deed: I acknowledge the fault in contrition, and will never be guilty of the like again. It was in the breeding season, when the young were hatched, at which time the parent birds, it is well known, are in the habit of making little excursions into the country, to a considerable distance from the breeding places, for the purpose of collecting flies, which they bring home to their infant progeny. On picking up my hopeless and ill-gotten prey, I observed a number of flies, some mutilated, others scarcely injured, crawling out of the bird's mouth; the throat and pouch seemed absolutely stuffed with them, and an incredible number was at length disgorged. I am sure I speak within compass when I state, that there was a mass of flies, just caught by this single swift, larger than, when pressed close, could conveniently be contained in the bowl of an ordinary tablespoon! Thus was a whole brood of young birds deprived of one of their nursing parents, by an act of the most wanton cruelty."-ED. *This insect is the craterina hirundines of Olfers, which has the instinct to deposit its cocoons in the well sheltered and warm nest of the swallow tribe, heat being so necessary to its existence. The fly, when hatched, lives by sucking the blood of the swallow. So tormenting are these insects to swallows, that they sometimes render the poor animals quite stupid, and unfit for their aerial excursions. The hippobosca equina, is the insect which sucks the blood of horses, and known in England by the name of the forest-fly: it belongs to the same natural family with that above described. - ED. INSECTS ON BIRDS OSPREY. 135 coming out of the north, are rendered half frantic by the tickling sensation; while our own breed little regards them. The curious Reaumur discovered the large eggs, or rather pupa, of these flies, as big as the flies themselves, which he hatched in his own bosom. Any person that will take the trouble to examine the old nests of either species of swallows, may find in them the black shining cases, or skins, of the рира of these insects; but, for other particulars, too long for this place, we refer the reader to L'Histoire d'Insectes of that admirable entomologist, tom. iv. pl. 11. LETTER LIV. TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. SELBORNE, November 9, 1773. DEAR SIR, AS you desire me to send you such observations as may occur, I take the liberty of making the following remarks, that you may, according as you think me right or wrong, admit or reject what I here advance, in your intended new edition of the British Zoology. * The osprey was shot about a year ago at Frinsham Pond, a great lake, at about six miles from hence, while it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish; it used to precipitate itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise. + * British Zoology, vol. i. p. 128. + Wilson beautifully describes the manoeuvres of the osprey, pandion haliaetus of Savigney, while in search of his prey: "In leaving the nest, he usually flies direct till he comes to the sea, then sails around in easy curving lines, turning sometimes in the air on a pivot, apparently without the least exertion, rarely moving the wings, his legs extended in a straight line behind, and his remarkable length and curvature, or bend of wing, distinguishes him from all other hawks. The height at which he thus elegantly glides is various, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty, and two hundred feet, sometimes much higher, all the while calmly reconnoitring the face of the deep below. Suddenly he is seen to check his course, as if struck by a particular object, which he seems to survey for a few moments with such steadiness, that he appears fixed in air, flapping his wings. This object, however, he abandons, or rather the fish he had in his eye has disappeared, and he is again seen sailing around as before. Now his attention is again arrested, and he descends with great rapidity; but ere he reaches the surface, shoots off on another course, as if ashamed that a second victim had escaped him. He now sails at a short height above the surface, and by a zigzag descent, and without seeming to dip his feet in the water, seizes a fish, which, |