222 Little Owl 



Lord Lilford introduced a considerable number of these birds 

 procured from Holland. 



The Little Owl feeds bv day, and is not inconvenienced by the 

 brightest sunlight. Of our four common British Owls, three are 

 entirely nocturnal-, or, at any rate, crepuscular-feeders. These 

 three are, therefore, quite innocuous on the rearing-field, for the 

 chicks are in the coops, or, in the case of wild birds, under their 

 mother's wing before the Owl starts on his rounds. The Short- 

 eared Owl frequently hunts in bright daylight, but it is so scarce 

 in East Anglia in these days, during the summer months, that it 

 can hardh' be supposed to inflict any serious damage on game. 

 In the autumn and winter, when it is exceedingly common, game- 

 birds are, of course, too big for attack. 



By introducing the Little Owl we have added another diurnal 

 bird of prey to our list, and a fresh scourge for the game-preserver. 

 This small bird is courageous and bold, even to the verge of 

 impudence, and is, in addition, exceedingly prolific. 



As we have seen with the Kestrel and male Sparrow-Hawk, 

 their depredations on game are necessarily limited to the time when 

 the game is small, the eight weeks from May 15th to July 15th. 

 It so happens that the great majority of my skins of the Little Owl 

 are outside this period, and, consequently, the dissection-notes 

 do not reveal him as a game-stealer. By far the larger number, 

 twenty-eight, were feeding on coleoptera and nothing else, especially 

 dor-beetles, midsummer chafers and ground-beetles of various 

 kinds. Only live contained rodent remains, and only one the flesh 

 of a gallinaceous bird, a farm-yard chicken six weeks old. So that 

 the positive evidence obtained by actual dissection does not present 

 a strong case against this Owl. Concerning a specimen taken on 

 July 6th, 1915, (Cambridge), the keeper wrote : " Little Owl was 

 seen taking chicken six weeks old in its claws. I trapped it with the 

 remains of the chicken the same evening. I had previously missed 

 six chickens, and so was watching to see what was taking them." 

 In further correspondence on the subject of the Little Owl he wrote, 

 September 8th, 1915 : " Two years ago I had a coop of eighteen 

 young Pheasants. When I fed at 10 a.m. they were quite all right : 

 when I fed again at 2 p.m. there were fourteen missing. I went to 

 get my gun ; when I returned there was another one gone. I soon 

 discovered what was taking them, as a Little Owl came at once and 

 got another. I shot it with the Pheasant in its claws. The young 

 Pheasants were three weeks old." That is sixteen Pheasant chicks 

 out of a total of eighteen between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. 



Out of my entire series of thirty-hve skins I have onl}- 

 six specimens which come within my game-stealing dates, 

 mid-May to mid-July. Of these, one was trapped with its seventh 

 farm-yard chicken, and one was shot on the rearing-tield. While 

 dissection only showed " small black ground beetles," the keeper 

 writes : " This bird took a lot of young Pheasants on the 



