220 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



as the " new owl." The bird's advent was hailed with delight 

 by those affected by the vole plague ; and possibly for the 

 first time in its long history every one, even the game- 

 keeper and the schoolboy, vied with each other in giving 

 protection to it and to its nest. 



If the appearance of the bird has been advantageous to 

 the suffering farmer, it has been no less interesting to the 

 naturalist. While spending a few days in June at Tushie- 

 law, Ettrick, I found that the stranger was the Short-eared 

 Owl ; that it was very plentiful on the farms on which it 

 had settled, and that there were still nests. I subsequently 

 ascertained that the bird was distributed over a considerable 

 portion of the vole-infested area of the counties of Rox- 

 burgh, Dumfries, Lanark, and Kirkcudbright, and it occurred 

 to me that if particulars and statistics could be obtained 

 bearing on its appearance, haunts, habits, and numbers, 

 valuable information might be gained. I accordingly sent 

 to proprietors, farmers, and shepherds in the infested area, 

 Lists of Questions for Replies ; and I have been fortunate 

 in getting a great number of responses. The results are 

 embraced in the Appendix to this paper. Mr. W. Eagle 

 Clarke has been good enough to check for me the Schedule, 

 and the particulars stated may be taken as a correct sum- 

 mary of the information received. The total acreage of 

 the respective farms has been stated. The acreage has, 

 however, in some few instances, been only estimated, but the 

 estimate may be accepted as sufficiently correct for all 

 practical purposes. In a few cases the acreage has not 

 been got, or I am not at liberty to make it public. 



It is, of course, impossible to make a reliable estimate of 

 the number of birds in the vole-infested area. That area is so 

 extensive, the population is so small, the ground traversed 

 by the shepherds in their daily rounds is so uniformly in the 

 same line, except during the lambing season, and the birds 

 sit so closely, that a small proportion only of the numbers 

 on the ground has probably been seen. The idea of 

 estimating the number of birds by the number of nests 

 found on certain farms is also unsatisfactory, as, with the 

 exception of Ettrick, I have particulars from comparatively 

 a few farms on the vole-infested watersheds, and it would 



