30 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



a summer's day, and the lonely loch is deserted save 

 for some wandering Diver, or Sandpiper, flitting 

 from stone to stone. But at luncheon-time one 

 chances to throw a few pieces of biscuit into the 

 still water at one's feet. Soon, far over the hills, a 

 tinv gull is seen. It sails over the surface of the 

 loch, steering a straight course, and, after a few 

 preliminary circles, it descends upon the food. It 

 is followed by others of its clan, and, in a little 

 while, half-a-dozen, or more, are clamouring m the 

 air. 



By what power, occult or otherwise, the birds are 

 guided it is impossible to guess. It certainly seems 

 that any explanation based upon the ordinary facul- 

 ties, of sight and smell, is untenable. The pheno- 

 menon is repeated in the case of the Short-eared 

 Owls. From time to time, certain serious inroads 

 of field-voles occur. As far back as 1580 and 1581, 

 there is a record of "a sore plague of strange 

 mice," which devastated a whole countryside in 

 Kent and Essex. . The same thing happened in 

 Norfolk, and later in Gloucestershire. Quite re- 

 cently, an irruption of these small pests, ruinous 

 to the farmer, occurred in Dumfriesshire. Mr. 

 Richard Bell, of Castle O'Er, gives a graphic ac- 

 count of the advent of the strange invaders; how 

 they swarmed in field, bank and hedgerow, destroy- 

 ing every blade of vegetation in their course. Bur 

 here, too, came the Owls, in numbers never before 

 known, to do the work which all the available 

 shepherds and their dogs were quite unable to 

 effect. 



One peculiarity of the Short-eared Owl, it is 



