BIRDS OF PREY. oT 
them.” And again: “Some idea may be formed of the 
number of mice destroyed by a pair of barn owls when 
it is known that, in the short space of twenty minutes, 
two old birds carried food to their young twelve times, 
thus destroying at least forty mice every hour during 
the time they continued hunting; and as young owls 
remain long in the nest, many hundreds of mice must 
be destroyed in the course of rearing them.’ 
Montagu says, in writing of the tawny owl: “This 
bird breeds in the hollows of trees, and sometimes in 
barns, which last it frequents for the sake of mice, and, 
as it is a better mouser than the cat, the farmer holds it 
in great estimation, and leaves a hole in his barns and 
granary for its egress.” 
I am afraid that on this latter point the farmers now 
are not so enlightened as in Montagu’s day, or does the 
fault rest with the builders; I have often seen these 
holes in the gables of old barns, but modern erections 
are without them. Now the appearance of any species 
of owl in a farmyard is merely the signal for the pro- 
‘duction of the gun, and the instant execution of the 
visitor. I fear this stupid prejudice or practice will 
retain its sway until a desire to know something of the 
habits of the various forms which we daily see around 
us is more extensively diffused than at present, and 
until the wanton love of destruction is exchanged for a 
spirit of admiration and reverence for those works which 
by their divine Creator were pronounced to be “very 
good.” 
Perhaps some reader may be inclined to think that, 
in advocating the preservation of rapacious birds, I have 
exaggerated the amount of mischief caused by mice, 
cockchafers, &e., and that the money value of their de- 
