Bird Notes and News 



21 



of daylight -hunting by the Bam-Owl, 

 Neither the war nor the Daylight Act can be 

 credited with having upset the Owl's hours. 

 The reports come from various parts of the 

 coimtry, and the only reason that appears 

 to be furnished is that the mild wet winter 

 have produced imusual numbers of voles 

 and field-mice. The Little Owl and Short- 

 eared Owl hunt by day, and even the Brown 

 Owl has been observed by a member of the 

 R.S.P.B. Council coming out by daylight in 

 her garden. The Estates Gazette welcomes the 

 change, as affording better opportunity for 

 watching and appreciating the Barn-Owl's 

 feeding habits : " on a very moderate 

 estimate every Barn-Owl should be worth 

 in ordinary times at least £5 a year to the 

 farmer, and with corn at its present price 

 any increase in the number of rats, mice 

 and voles becomes a very serious matter." 



* * * 



Six or seven years ago Mr. A. G. Spence 

 read a paper before the East Lothian Farmers' 

 Club, in which he alluded to the increase of 

 rats, and attributed it mainly to the killing 

 of Owls and Kestrels, Since that time the 

 Club and the County Council have been 

 working together to try to reduce the plague 

 and they have recorded their experiences. 

 They have had rat-catchers busy, have used 

 steel traps, ferrets, dogs, netting, flashlights 

 (with terriers), flooding, poison and virus. 

 The virus was found least desirable, and the 

 poison dangerous — ^the rats haimting water 

 afterwards and falling into the wells. But 

 nothing is said of any efforts made for the 

 better protection and encouragement of 

 Owls and Kestrels. It is merely mentioned 



that Owls and cats " play a prominent part." 



* * * 



It appears time that a strong line should 

 be taken by bird-lovers regarding the use of 



poisonous worm- and weed-killers in the 

 garden. Birds eating the poisoned worms, 

 or imbibing moisture from the weeds, take 

 in the arsenical mixture and die a miserable 

 death, Thrushes and Blackbirds, as the 

 chief worm-destroyers, suffering most. Non- 

 poisonous compounds should be insisted on 

 if the gardener will not take the trouble to 

 root up the weeds. As for the worms, 

 everyone in these post-Darwin days knows 

 the necessity for them in ventilating and 

 enriching the soil, and may trust to the 

 beaks of birds to remove the surplus without 

 disfiguring the lawn. 



It is not an unknown thing for a bumble- 

 bee to take possession of a nesting-box 

 intended for its betters ; but an Edgbaston 

 correspondent sends a curious instance of a 

 Blue Tit apparently setting up house in a 

 box already occupied by a bee. The Tits 

 b^^ilt in the box, but after the full complement 

 of eggs was laid the pair forsook it and 

 built a second nest in a second box. The 

 owner of the garden, curious to know the 

 reason for this strange move, had the box 

 examined, when beneath nest and eggs were 

 found a bee and a piece of comb, about an 

 inch and a half square, the cells full of eggs. 

 * * * 



A plague of caterpillars has riddled the 

 oak-leaves this spring, but the Times (June 6) 

 says that thousands of Starlings and Jack- 

 daws have cleared the trees in Ashtead 

 Wood from the pest. Visitors to Richmond 

 Park and other wooded areas have noted 

 the crowds of Starlings, Blackbirds, Thiushes, 

 Wagtails, and Sparrows, busily carrjdng off 

 beaksful to their nestlings from under the 

 infected trees every few minutes, while the 

 Warblers were equally busy among the 

 branches. 



