26 The Mice Plague. [Sess. 



I feared she must have been badly injured. For two days she 

 was never seen, but on the third 1 was pleased to see her re- 

 turn to watch over her imprisoned progeny. The male bird 

 never actually touched my face, but flew up into a tree, and, 

 in " hoolet " language, denounced me in terms, no doubt, more 

 expressive than polite. 



I must confess to my ignorance of the habits of the short- 

 eared owls until the outbreak of the vole plague. I have 

 frequently come across them when partridge - shooting in 

 turnip-fields and rough pasture-land in the winter months, 

 but, save on one occasion, at Dalnaspidal in Perthshire, I 

 have never seen them in summer. While " studying " the 

 vole plague in Ettrick Forest, I took a couple of young short- 

 eared owls and carried them home for the purpose of finding 

 out about their habits. It has been demonstrated beyond all 

 doubt that in whatever part of the world a plague of mice 

 appears, short-eared owls, impelled by a powerful instinct, 

 are sure to follow and devour them. Sir Herbert Maxwell, 

 in a letter to the ..' Scotsman,' stated that " they are perfectly 

 harmless to game." From their savage nature, I had grave 

 doubts about this, and more especially as I had read the 

 opinions of recognised authorities on the subject. Mr St 

 John, in his well-known book, ' Wild Sports and Natural 

 History of the Highlands,' says : " I saw a short-eared owl 

 hunting a rushy field and regularly beating it for prey at 

 mid-clay. . . . He put up and made a dash at a snipe, but 

 did not follow up his pursuit, probably perceiving that it 

 would be useless." The short-eared owl has frequently been 

 known to breed in the Orkney Islands. Mr Low, in his 

 ' Fauna Orcadensis,' refers to it as " breeding in the hills of 

 Hoy, where it builds its nest among the heath. It is there," 

 he adds, " of great boldness, and has been seen to chase 

 pigeons in the open day. In a nest containing young I found 

 the remains of a moor-fowl and two plovers beside the feet 

 of several others." In view of these statements I resolved to 

 make some experiments. Having my two short-eared pets in 

 an aviary, I introduced beside them live pigeons, partridges, 

 and missel-thrushes, when, as is characteristic of the owl tribe, 

 they decapitated their victims preparatory to making a meal 

 of them. I was so struck with the savage aspect of these 



