AN OWL AT SEA.

Bruce Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 1209, 4 June 1880, Page 1

AN OWL AT SEA.

The White Star steamship Celtic, which arrived at New York from Liverpool on Wednesday, February 11, brought a strange passenger who bad boarded that vessel in mid-ocean. A large white owl dropped on one of tbe forward spars in an exhausted condition one evening, when the vessel was about 800 miles off the coast of Newfoundland When brought to the deck by a sailor, the owl was found to be nearly dead from cold and hunger, aud almost too weak to eat. It had become greatly emaciated, and trembled voilently in endeavouring to swallow the first morsel of meat which was placed in its beak. The owl slowly recovered, and is now perfectly well. It is a land bird, and is supposed to have been blown off' the coast of Newfoundland by the westerly gales which had for some days previous prevailed there. Finding itself once out at sea, it had probably ceased making efforts to reach the land, and had drifted before the gale, its only efforts being to keep above water. The bird must have possessed remarkable powers of endurance, the officers say, to have kept up so long. The Celtic's owl, which is now quite tame, measures nearly five feet from wing to wing, and is white with the exception ot* a few small specks of dark colour. It will probably live for some time to come on board the vessel which it selected as its home while in mid-ocean. Land birds have rarely been seen so far out at sea.