28 Our Bird Friends. 



Owls arc very useful iu keeping down the supply 

 of mice and voles, and not many years ago did the 

 farmers in the south of Scotland a real service by 

 ridding them of a plague of the latter. They also 

 kill small birds, and occasionally trout. An ingenious 

 naturalist has suggested that they attract the latter 

 to the surface by their luminous eyes, knowing that 

 tish swim up in great wonderment to a light. The 

 owl has no need, however, to do this, for in summer- 

 time trout visit shallow pools in the evening in search 

 of the larv;T3 of flies, and when so engaged I have 

 on many occasions seen them with their backs out of 

 water, thus aftbrding any hungry owl an excellent 

 opportunity of seizing and carrying them off. 



The Conunon and the Arctic Skua are veritable 

 robbers of the air. Watching until some luckless 

 Gull catches a lish, they instantly give chase and 

 harry the poor bird until it is obliged to rehnquish 

 its prey, when they at once plunge headlong through 

 the air after it, and are so swift of wing that they 

 can invariably secure it before it reaches the surface 

 of the ocean below. 



Some birds have peculiar ways of dealing with 

 their prey. The Red-backed Shrike, for instance, 

 keeps a regular larder. It has the strange habit 

 of impahng its victims on thorns, and has in this 

 way earned for itself the popular name of Butcher 

 Bird. It lives upon beetles and other winged 

 insects principally, but does not hesitate to attack 

 lizards, mice, and small birds, and has been known 



