6 THE BIRDS OF BERKS AND BUCKS. 



Forest, where they are often taken or shot as vermin ! 

 Vermin, indeed ! I will undertake to say that for 

 every rabbit or leveret they take, they destroy twice 

 as many rats, mice, and moles ; and this might be 

 proved if each specimen were examined when shot. 

 They are common in Ditton Park, the seat of His 

 Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, and are to be found 

 in Burnham Beeches, where their nests and eggs have 

 been taken. They breed also in Langley Park, in 

 Windsor Forest, near Winkfield, at Fulmer, and in 

 many other wooded localities. 



Mr. Ferryman, of Datchet, states that specimens of 

 this bird are sometimes brought to him from that 

 neighbourhood. The last which came under my 

 notice was a large male bird, in fine plumage, which 

 was killed by a keeper in Stoke Park, about the 

 20th of September, 1867. The following extract 

 is from a letter from Mr. A. Collins, of the 57th 

 Regiment, dated Manchester, 22nd November, 1867 : — 



' From my earliest recollection there have always 

 been some five or six couple of Horned Owls in a 

 small fir plantation on my father's property. Better- 

 ton, near Wantage. Probably the retired situation 

 of this wood — in a hollow of the Downs — had much 

 to do with the owls' making it their head-quarters, 

 their wisdom being proverbial. My ambition, when 

 I was a schoolboy, was to have one of these as a 

 pet, but as the young birds were always fully fledged 

 and strong on the wing by the time I got home for 



