VOL. VI.] NOTES. 65 



They are very large consumers of insects, beetles, earth- 

 worms, lizards, mice — and during the time the young are 

 being fed, kill a great many birds. These consist almost 

 entirely of young Thrushes, Blackbirds, Mistle-Tlirushes, 

 Sparrows, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, some Skylarks — just 

 what one might expect ; but the main jooint comes in the fact 

 that, in all these years I have never seen the remains of a single 

 game-bird in a nest or " hoard." No doubt the Little Owl 

 will occasionally get the habit of taking young game from 

 the coops in a rearing-field, but that is quite another affair, 

 as birds in a rearing-field have no watchful parent with eyes 

 looking out in every direction, and ready to give warning and 

 drive off an enemy when necessary. The foster-mother in 

 a coop has only one point of vision, viz. straight ahead. I 

 know at the present moment of a brood of Little Owls in an 

 orchard in which some four hundred small chicks are being 

 reared in artificial " foster-mothers," and no damage is 

 being done ; and also of two broods close to a rearing-field 

 where some fifteen hundred young Pheasants are being reared. 



The fact that this Owl hunts much by day has been given 

 as a reason why it should be so destructive to game. The 

 Little Owl, when hunting by day, is so well advertised by the 

 attendant small birds, that any old hen Pheasant or pair of 

 Partridges with a brood are well aware of its presence long 

 before there is any danger to them. This Owl does not hunt 

 in woods, or where there is thick cover, but along hedgerows, 

 amongst scattered trees, and in quite open ground. After 

 the hay and corn is first cut they hunt almost entirely for 

 ipiects and voles over the freshh^-exposed fields, and make 

 i/se of any perch such as a gate or any slight elevation, to 

 survey the ground round them. At this time of 3'ear, viz. 

 from mid-July onMards, their food consists almost entirely 

 of insects and voles, which can very easily be proved by 

 examining the castings which are found in large numbers. 



On the Continent this Owl is looked upon with anything but 

 disfavour ; but I am inclined to think it is more insectivorous 

 abroad than it is with us, probably for the reason that re2:)tiles 

 and insects are more easily obtained on the Continent than 

 in these islands, while in this country small birds abound. 

 I have been rather diffuse in describing the food of this bird, 

 as I see the Editor asks for more information as to its food. 



E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 



A NEST found by me early in May contained the remains of 

 a number of small birds, the greater part of a young rabbit, 

 and the wing of a full-groA^-n Rook. A local keeper informed 



