1891-92.] The Mice Plague. 27 



owls that I did not think they would discriminate hetwixt a 

 vole and a small weasel, more especially as they are nearly of 

 the same size. I therefore resolved to try further experi- 

 ments, so shutting the owls in a room about fifteen feet 

 square, and procuring half-a-dozen weasels, I put them all 

 together, feeding them chiefly on sparrows. On entering the 

 room hurriedly, one of the owls flew on to his perch with a 

 weasel in his talons, and within a week three of them were 

 devoured by the owls. It ought to he added, however, that 

 the remaining three weasels and the owls lived together for 

 some time without interfering with each other. I do not base 

 any theories on experiments which dissociate wild creatures 

 from their natural environments and place them in captivity ; 

 but this incident, though not to be accepted as conclusive, 

 affords presumptive evidence that weasel preservation and owl 

 preservation are by no means synonymous terms. 



The short-eared owl has always been regarded as migratory, 

 though, as is well known, an occasional nest has been met 

 with. In all my peregrinations over Scotland in the spring 

 months, prior to this year, I was never fortunate enough to 

 find a nest, though I have seen young birds in the month of 

 August at Dalnaspidal. This bird generally arrives from the 

 Continent in October, leaving our shores again in March. 

 It is never seen in wood, but confines itself entirely to the 

 open ground, breeding in the heather like a grouse, and laying 

 from eight to twelve eggs, about the same size and colour as a 

 pigeon's. Commencing to incubate as soon as the first eggs 

 are dropped, the young birds in consequence come out in 

 various stages, those first hatched being seen stalking about 

 like young curlews among the heather, while the younger 

 members of the family, in their dress of clown, remain in the 

 nest. 



When the vole plague was at its height on the Border 

 pasture-lands, short-eared owls remained and bred, as many as 

 six, eight, and ten nests being found by the shepherds on their 

 respective hirsels in Ettrick Forest. As I stated to the Com- 

 mission of Inquiry, it is to these birds and rooks that we 

 must look for the cure of the vole plague, otherwise than 

 climatic influence. As some of the infested districts were 

 many miles away from the woods which are the habitat of 



