Raptorial Birds of the Solway Area. 335 



taste, only less vile than that of using this poor bird's skin as the 

 centre-piece of a drawing-room hand-screen. After all, such 

 fate as falls to the lot of those that are "stuffed" is not so 

 ignoble as that of the great army of Barn Owls which annually 

 become victims to the misguided zeal of the game preserver. 

 Not much can really be laid to the charge of any of the Owls, 

 and nothing at all may be truly alleged against this particular 

 species so far as the interests of game, real and supposed, are 

 concerned. The legions of mice, voles, and rats that almost 

 entirely constitute the food of the Barn Owl would surely work 

 havoc incalculable were they not destroyed in the quiet, remorse- 

 lessly unceasing way that few people, except the vigilant field 

 ornithologist, has any idea of. The three County Councils that 

 preside over the faunal region of Solway never did wiser actions 

 than when they included this and the other Owls in the protected 

 schedules. 



The Barn Owl is the most ghost-like of all the Owls in its 

 flight. Let me not be understood as likening the movements of 

 this bird to that of the spirits of darkness in any other than a 

 conventional sense. It hovers, and turns, and quarters its beat 

 on noiseless wings, and the pale colour gleams out against the 

 dark background of the woods, as it fiits in and out of the 

 changing and uncertain twilight of the summer evening. 



An old and most respectable school of naturalists taught that 

 the innumerable instances of means to definite ends were designed 

 directly by the Creator. A younger, and, let it be said, less 

 reverential, generation insists that Nature herself has evolved all 

 these beautiful designs by the automatic working of natural laws. 

 Of course the argument, well founded as it may be, only puts the 

 First Cause a step farther back. 



Amongst these appliances for equipping their owners to take 

 part in the great struggle for life, the feathering and structure of 

 the Owls must surely be reckoned as amongst the most perfect. 

 Examine the exquisite series of fringes along the edges of the 

 feathers. Feel how soft and fluffy is the plumage. Note the 

 largeness of the eyes, adapted for collecting every ray of light. 

 See what a great cavity in the large head is occupied by the ear, 

 wide enough to catch the faintest rustle of the creeping vole in 

 the grass. Look at the powerful talons and the strength of beak, 

 and if your examination has been conducted intelligently you will 



