. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. THE BAKN OAVL 219 owl must have a liberal allowance of small birds, like English sparrows, and, if possible, an occa- sional small mammal, in each case with the feath- ers or hair upon it. Nature has constructed the owl to devour its prey entire,—feathers, hair, bones and all, on the spot where it is captured. By a curious rotary action of the stomach, all the desirable elements are extracted and as- similated, and the indigestible refuse—hair, feathers, bones, claws, etc.—
. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. THE BAKN OAVL 219 owl must have a liberal allowance of small birds, like English sparrows, and, if possible, an occa- sional small mammal, in each case with the feath- ers or hair upon it. Nature has constructed the owl to devour its prey entire,—feathers, hair, bones and all, on the spot where it is captured. By a curious rotary action of the stomach, all the desirable elements are extracted and as- similated, and the indigestible refuse—hair, feathers, bones, claws, etc.—is rolled into a ball called a "pellet," which is east up, and ex- pelled through the mouth. These pellets are sometimes collected at roosting-places, and when carefully examined by expert zoologists, it is possible to identify most of the animal remains, and tell what the bird has fed upon. The Barn-Owl, or Monkey-Faced OwW is the most oddly shaped of all the owls; it has the smoothest and most compact plumage, and proportionately the longest legs. Its general color is that of scorched linen—light brownish- yellow. Each small black eye is the centre of a sunburst of radiating feathers, and the whole face is surrounded by a heart-shaped ring of brown. The Barn-Owl is to rats and mice as the cuckoo is to the caterpillar. As a destroyer of the meanest vermin on earth (rats) this bird has no equal. Whether North or South, in the tropics or the temperate zone, it loves to live under the roofs of civilized man, especially in church bel- fries, where it is not molested. In the town of Barrancas, at the head of the Orinoco delta, some Venezuelan boys piloted me into the best church in the place, showed me two Barn-Owls nesting over the altar, and urged me to shoot them then and there. My refusal because the birds were very thoroughly in sanctuary was with difficulty comprehended. Many observations on the food habits of this bird have been made by examining the pellet
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookp, booksubjectnaturalhistory
