THE OWL. 171

food by day, instead of hunting for it by night, mankind
would have ocular demonstration of its utility in thinning
the country of mice, and it would be protected and encou-
raged everywhere. It would be with us what the ibis was
with the Egyptians. When it has young it will bring a
mouse to the nest every twelve or fifteen minutes. But in
order to have a proper idea of the enormous quantity of
mice which this bird destroys, we must examine the pellets
which it ejects from its stomach in the place of its retreat.
Every pellet contains from four to seven skeletons of mice ;
and in sixteen months from the time that the apartment of
the owl on the old gateway was cleaned out, there has been
a deposit of above a bushel of pellets.”

With reference to this “old gateway” and its inhabitants,
the same eminent naturalist says, “On the ruins of the old
gateway, against which tradition says the waves of the lake
have dashed for the better part of a thousand years, I made
a place, with stone and mortar, about four feet square, and
fixed a thick oaken stick firmly into it; huge masses of ivy
now quite cover it. In about a month after it was finished,
a pair of barn owls came and took up their abode in it. I
took upon myself the whole responsibility of all the sick-
ness, woe, and sorrow that the new tenants might bring to