THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT 



to persecute them relentlessly in the face of the 

 unanimous testimony of ornithologists who have made 

 a life-study of birds and their food. How can it be 

 otherwise, however, when economic natural history 

 is not taught in schools, and the people pass their 

 leisure time in reading books of fiction only ? 



A female rat is capable of producing as many as six 

 litters a year, and from eight to ten in a litter. The 

 progeny begin breeding when half grown. So rapidly 

 do they multiply, that from a single pair a large city 

 or a farm miles in extent would, in a few years, be 

 overrun with a countless horde of these destructive 

 rodents. 



Thrice fortunate it is for man that he can command 

 the service of the hawk and the owl in his fight for 

 life against the rat and mouse tribe. Without the help 

 rendered by owls and hawks these rodents would eat 

 him out of house and home. 



We possess a very reliable means of finding out 

 what kind of diet the owl is most partial to. These 

 birds regurgitate or vomit pellets consisting of the 

 indigestible portion of the bodies of their prey, such 

 as the hair and bones. 



A pair of barn owls (Strix flammea maculatd), or 

 dood-vogel, reared their offspring in the loft of an 

 old outbuilding. After the young were reared and 

 had flown away I examined the nest and found in the 

 regurgitated pellets the skulls of 698 mice and rats 

 of various species. Another pair inhabited a large 

 cavity in an old tree trunk, and after two broods of 

 young had been reared I examined the hole and found 



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