184 BIRD-LIFE OF THE BORDERS 



be it remembered — to their credit, and as a set-off to a 

 few young pheasants — that these owls are destroying night 

 by night throughout the entire year, thousands of field- 

 mice and rats that would scarce leave a green thing 

 alive, unless they were thus held in check. 



No owl should ever be molested under any pretext ; 

 nor should a kestrel. Both these do us inestimable 

 service. The sparrow-hawk is so mischievous that their 

 numbers must be kept within reasonable limits. 



On August 3rd, 1902, seven teal settled on a marsh at 

 Longstrother, near Houxty. The circumstance is speci- 

 ally mentioned, as I had, only three months before, formed 

 the marsh in question by damming back a small hill-burn, 

 and it illustrates how much may be done by very small 

 means to increase and enrich the bird-life of a district. 

 Generally speaking, the tendency is all the other way. 

 Every little marshy patch is pipe-drained; each waste 

 corner reclaimed and reduced to the same miserable 

 monotony of sheep-bearing grass. What chance is there 

 left for the wilder creatures ? 



In the present instance, within eight days of its com- 

 pletion in May, this small marsh was occupied by a pair of 

 mallards ; and on this date (that is, within three months) 

 I counted, besides the seven teal, upwards of fifty snipe. 

 Within two years, all the above species regularly nested 

 there, together with redshanks, waterhens, and reed- 

 buntings. The latter may seem unimportant ; but to 

 me, as a bird-lover, it is a source of infinite pleasure to 

 have attracted a beautiful species never before known 

 there. Curlews also, and plovers, though they were there 

 before, appreciate the unwonted boon and reward me 

 by yearly increasing. There has already been mentioned 

 (p. 13S) the case of another small marsh — smaller even 



