92 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



reconciliation to the very qualified captivity to 

 wliicli they are subjected. 



The tawny or wood owl (Syrnium aluco) is still 

 found in the thick covers of the weald, and in old 

 parks, to which this bird now appears to be 

 chiefly restricted. Although in its persecution at 

 the hands of the keeper it does not present such 

 a case of injured innocence as the barn owl — a 

 young leveret or rabbit occasionally varying its 

 nocturnal sport — yet I believe that feathered 

 game is rarely or never molested by it; while 

 rats, mice, small birds, reptiles, and large insects 

 constitute its regular prey. 



This species was, even a few yeai^ since, more 

 numerous than at present in our great woods; 

 which I attribute not so much to special persecu- 

 tion as to the disappearance of nearly all the aged 

 oak trees which used to form such a distinguisliing 

 feature in our woodland scenery, and in the hollow 

 recesses of which the tawny owl deposited its eggs 

 and reared its young. An opinion has for some 

 time been prevalent among proprietors in these 

 districts, that under the existing state of duties on 

 foreign timber,* and the present high value of oak 

 bark, it " pays better," as the phrase is, to fell the 



*" This was written before the late alteration in the 

 tariff. 



