134 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



them, and the owners, if they will take the trouble to watch, may 

 see the owls making the dove-cot their perch and their 

 starting-point on their sallies, their tower of observation, and 

 the pigeons showing no uneasiness whatever at the coming 

 and going of the cat on wings. When will the time come 

 that gamekeepers, under pain of immediate dismissal, will 

 be forbidden by their masters to shoot owls? As it is, this 

 bird, which ought to be as common as the rook, is actually 

 rare; and when it goes out to kill the mice and rats, which 

 are the farmer's worst enemies, it has to sneak to and fro 

 as if it was a criminal, doing something that it should not — 



" a furtive owl on stealthy wing." 



Owls, as a matter of fact, should be tempted in every way 

 to live amongst us, and a reward should be given to every 

 farm-hand who brought first news of a nest upon the grounds. 

 That they do no mischief is absolutely beyond all doubt ; 

 that they do an enormous amount of good is as absolutely on 

 proof. Yet farmers' gamekeepers, many of whom are smiply 

 poachers promoted to private employment, grossly ignorant 

 and brutal men, are allowed to shoot these valuable birds 

 as if they were a pest. Poor owls ! They had a bad name 

 given them in the beginning, and, such is the persistence 

 of popular prejudice and superstition, their bad name still 

 clingrs to them amonof the class of rustic from which the 

 farmers' gamekeepers are too often selected, the men who 



