“The barn-owl also goes by the name of belfry-owl, because it likes to make its home in old church towers. Sometimes it will enter a church by night to hunt mice. Those who first came upon the ill-famed bird near the altar did not fail to accuse it of drinking oil from the lamp or, rather, of eating it when it is congealed by the cold. The charge itself proves its own falsity, as oil cannot congeal in a lamp that is always kept burning. But the slanderers do not trouble themselves about a little thing like that when they wish to blacken the bird’s reputation. They will continue for a long time, if not forever, to regard the owl as a profaner of holy lamps. In Provence they will always call this bird the oil-drinker.
“In reality, the barn-owl lives on rats and mice, which it catches in barns and churches; on field-mice, meadow-mice, and dormice, which it hunts in gardens and fields. Here, beyond a doubt, we have a service rendered that ought to make people forget its false reputation, make them like and protect it as it deserves. Will the bird that gives us very real help and is guiltless of a single offense ever be declared innocent? I very much doubt it. Superstition is so deep-rooted that there will never be lacking a One-eyed John to nail a live owl to his door. [[127]]
“The barn-owl likes to live in inhabited regions. The roofs of churches, summits of steeples, high towers—these are its favorite haunts. All day it remains crouching in some dark hole, from which it does not come out until after sunset. Its manner of taking flight deserves mention. First it lets itself fall from the summit of its steeple like a dead weight, and it does not spread its wings until after a rather long vertical drop. It then pursues a zigzag course, making no more noise than if the wind bore it along. It is fond of nesting in abandoned ruins, in the hollow trunks of worm-eaten trees, occasionally in barns, high up on some beam. But it builds no nest to hold its eggs, which are laid on the spot that may have been selected, with no leaves, roots, or hair to serve as bedding. The laying takes place toward the end of March and is limited to five or six white eggs remarkable for their oval shape, an exceptional shape for nocturnal birds of prey. The little ones, with their large eyes, beak stretched open for food, and rumpled down, are the ugliest creatures imaginable. The mother feeds them with insects and bits of mouse-flesh.
“The smallest of our hornless owls is the sparrow-owl. Like the red owl, it is about the size of a blackbird. It is dark brown in color, with large white spots of a round or oval shape. The throat is white, and the tail is crossed by four narrow whitish stripes. The sparrow-owl has a quick and light bearing, and it sees by day much better than other night birds; therefore it sometimes chases small [[128]]birds, but rarely with success. When it has the good luck to catch one it plucks it very clean before eating it, instead of following the gluttonous example of the horned owls and the howlet, which swallow such prey whole and throw the feathers up later. Its hunting expeditions are much more fruitful when directed against field-mice and common mice, which it dismembers before eating. Other owls make but one mouthful of their prey; the sparrow-owl tears to pieces the animal it has caught, perhaps so that it may enjoy the flavor more. To express astonishment, surprise, fear, the barn-owl waddles in a most ridiculous manner; but the sparrow-owl adopts another method: it bows its legs, crouches down, and then abruptly rises, lengthening its neck and turning its head to right and left. You would say it was moved by springs from within. This performance is repeated over and over again, each time accompanied by a clacking of the beak. In flight the bird’s habitual cry is poo, poo, poo; at rest it says ay-may, aid-may, repeated several times in quick succession in a tone almost human.
“The sparrow-owl lives in deserted buildings, quarries, old and dilapidated towers, but never in hollow trees. It frequents the roofs of churches and of village houses. Its nest consists of a hole in a rock or a wall, where it lays four or five round white eggs somewhat speckled with red.” [[129]]
[1] A name given to the cat in La Fontaine’s “Fables.”—Translator. [↑]