ViTH DRA Ve wN 
MAY 9 1919 
PUBLIC 
WASHINGTON T oY D.C. 
The Long-Eared Owl is less strictly nocturnal in its habits. 
The Short-Eared Owl may be seen quartering the ground at all hours of the day. 
Where great plagues of mice have occurred this species has been known to flock 
. Laie 
RSQ 
in numbers to the place. 
VI. Protection. 
Wild Birds Act, 1880.—These birds appear in the schedule, which applies to every 
county in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Any owner, occupier, or other person 
taking, killing, etc., an owl during close season,* or possessing or selling an 
owl after 15th March, is liable to a penalty of £1 for each bird. 
Wild Birds Act, 1894.—Their eggs are protected at present (1896) in the following 
counties :+-— 
ENGLAND—I. Norruern: Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland; II. Miptanp: 
Bedford, Chester, Derby, Gloucester, Huntingdon, Leicester, Lincoln (parts of Kesteven 
and Lindsey), Northampton, Stafford, Warwick, and West Suffolk; IIT. Souruurn: 
Devon, Hertford, Isle of Wight, Metropolitan Police District (including London and 
Middlesex), Norfolk, Oxford, Southampton. 
SCOTLAND—Aberdeen, Berwick, Dumfries, Kircudbright, Wigtown, Orkney, 
Shetland, East Haddington, Linlithgow, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, and Tiree. 
IRELAND—Roscommon. 
Any owner, occupier, or other person taking or destroying an owl’s egg is liable to 
a penalty of £1 for each egg. The eggs of the four species are pure white, nearly round, and 
measure about 14 by 14 inches, those of the Tawny Owl being somewhat larger. 
VII. Remarks. 
It was a wise legislative proceeding that granted protection to owls, for of all birds, 
from a farmer’s standpoint, they are among the most useful, and are placed in the highest 
class by the economist. Will no one explain to the whole generation of gamekeepers what 
a stupid and aimless crime is the wholesale persecution of these pleasing birds ? 
Half a dozen pole-traps in use on one estate will keep down and even exterminate the 
owls inhabiting the country for miles around. Richard Jefferies relates that in one instance 
no fewer than two hundred owls were taken in one pole-trap in a plantation of young 
fir trees, doubtless held fast by their crushed legs, and doomed to perish miserably by 
slow degrees! ‘Two hundred convictions at £1 each, with costs, would be a large sum to pay 
for using that pole-trap ! ! 
Our ancestors, wiser than we are, always made in their great barns an ingress for owls— 
an owl hole, with often a stone perch. If you do not possess a hollow tree, why not 
construct a suitable place and try to induce a pair of barn owls to reside on your premises ? 
* Generally from 1st March to 3lst July; but in some counties from 1st February to 3lst August in 
each year. 
+ It is expected that other counties will before long obtain similar orders of protection under the Act 
of 1894, 
