4A BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



small hours. I used, moreover, to feel (though I never 

 admitted) some slight misgiving- for the safety of my 

 small rearing of pheasants and wild-duck, which abide 

 hard by. For the innocence and moral character of my 

 owls, I steadfastly stood bail, and never but once have 

 they abused my confidence. Their one lapse, in the 

 interests of even-handed justice even to "vermin" (as 

 owls are stigmatised by the wooden-headed), shall be 

 duly recorded at its proper season. Meanwhile, in 

 April, 1904, we found a nest of the tawny owl — or 

 rather, two down-clad owlets and an addled egg — lying 

 on the bare pine-needles at the foot of a spruce. There 

 was neither nest nor other shelter whatever, beyond two 

 big sloping root-shafts, in the angle of which the owlets 

 lay on the ground. I had the pleasure of showing this 

 site, a month later, to Mr Howard Saunders and Mr 

 F. C. Selous. 



The following year, these owls (presumably the same 

 pair) nested in a similar situation, only a few hundred 

 yards away. But their new home, when discovered in 

 April, presented quite a different, and a very extraor- 

 dinary picture. For the downy triplets now reposed 

 amid a veritable holocaust of tiny corpses, which formed, 

 as it were, a rampart around their nursery. These, on 

 examination, numbered twenty-four, to wit : — thirteen 

 field-mice (long- and short-tailed), four shrews, one star- 

 ling, a cock chaffinch, two fledgling missel-thrushes, 

 and three baby rabbits. For a single day's supply 

 (and owls are clean feeders, rejecting carrion), this list 

 is eloquent of the utility of the genus. 



Another owl's larder, on Cheviot, contained (besides 

 many mice and young rabbits) a frog, half-eaten, and 

 a willow-wren. 



