Bird Life in a Suburban Parish 149 



bring his words before every game-preserver in the kingdom : 

 " The Owls (Short-eared Owls) have been exterminated 

 })v the keepers with tiieir deadly ))ole-traps a eruel form 

 of bird nnn-der which no iuimane person would tolerate or 

 adopt. . . . The useful l^arn-owl, too, has been ruthlessly 

 destroyed whenever opportunities offered in this same eruel 

 fashion. Noiselessly across the waste in the twilight, like 

 a flitting phantom, comes the soft - winged Owl, and 

 seeing, as if placed ready for his use, a post of vantage 

 from which he may mark each stealthy movement of the 

 mischie^'ous Field-vole, stays his flight to settle on the 

 treacherous perch ; and then during all the long sad 

 night — and too often, we fear, through the succeeding 

 day — with splintered bone protruding through smashed 

 flesh and torn tendon, hangs suspended in supreme agony, 

 gibbeted head downwards till death puts an end to his 

 suffenngs. A\"ell may we ask. Can all the game-pre- 

 serving in the world justify this ignorant and needless 

 wrong ? " 



Owls and other raptorial ])irds eject the indigestible 

 parts of their prey in the form of pellets, so that it is 

 perfectly easy to show exactly on what they feed. On 

 putting the castings of a Barn-owl into warm water, you 

 find bones of mice with their skulls embedded in the skin. 

 Out of bushels of these castings taken from hollow trees 

 inhabited by Owls for many years, not the slightest trace 

 of the remains of any game bird is to be found. The 

 few bird-remains will be Sparrows' skidls. The I>ong- 



