Little Owl 221 



experiments are to be made at all, and the experience which has 

 attended man}' such efforts here and in other countries in the past, 

 does not lend much encouragement to their repetition, then I do 

 think that there should be some competent central authority, whose 

 pt'rmission would have to be sought and obtained before an}' alien 

 bird or mammal could be turned out loose in Great Britain 



M}' scheme would, I suppose, require a short Act of Parliament, 

 rendering it illegal to introduce intentionally and attempt to 

 establish, as part of our native fauna, any foreign animal. Suitable 

 and fairly heavy penalties would be enforced for any infringement 

 of the Act, while, at the same time, the County Councils, or 

 other authorized bodies, on being informed of the local introduc- 

 tion of the undesirable species, should be given full power to 

 set about its extermination at once, before it can become fully 

 established. 



The Scandinavian Willow-Grouse {Lagopus albus) has, within 

 recent years, been introduced into at least two districts in Scotland. 

 In this instance, if the attempt proves successful, the risk is run of 

 the swamping by the stranger of our own Red Grouse, the only 

 bird peculiar to these Islands. The Willow Grouse is far inferior, 

 whether as a bird of sport or from a culinary point of view, to our 

 indigenous species. What possible excuse can there be for this 

 experiment ? The only suggestion I have ever heard is that it was 

 hoped that the Willow Grouse might prove more " resistent to 

 disease " than our native bird. 



For this pious hope we are to run the possible risk of the 

 extermination of our bird by a very inferior alien. Fortunately, 

 the experiment does not appear to have succeeded ver}- well, and 

 I do not believe that the \¥illow Grouse is spreading, or, indeed, 

 holding its own in the centres of introduction. But that does not 

 excuse the experiment, which might easil}' have proved only too 

 successful, and have ended by greatly diminishing, or even 

 extinguishing, our own native Grouse, to the disservice of sportsmen 

 and naturalists, and to the heavy monetary loss of the proprietor 

 of the Grouse-moor, and the many other people indirectly dependent 

 on its upkeep. 



To return to the Little Owl. The bird has found no difficulty 

 in adapting itself to the new surroundings. The introduction has 

 proved entirely successful, and the species is increasing all over 

 the country very rapidly. As an instance of this, I may mention 

 that the Little Owl is one of the very few strange birds that I have 

 met with in my own garden (72, Woodstock Road) in Oxford. This 

 was on July 21st, 1914, at 12 o'clock noon in bright sunshine. 



From three different Suffolk estates I have had several Little 

 Owls sent me. From one estate in Cambridgeshire (not a very 

 large one either) I received between July 6th and December 30th, 

 1915, twenty-six specimens, young and old. I think the nearest 

 centre of introduction was Northamptonshire, the county into which 



