92 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



The tawny or wood owl (Syrnium aluco) is still 

 found in the thick covers of the weald, and in old 

 parks, to which this bird now appears to be chiefly 

 restricted. Although in its persecution at the 

 hands of the keeper it does not present such a 

 case of injured innocence as the bam owl a 

 young leveret or rabbit occasionally varying its 

 nocturnal sport yet I believe that feathered game 

 is rarely or never molested by it ; while rats, mice, 

 small birds, reptiles, and large insects constitute 

 its regular prey. 



This species was, even a few years since, more 

 numerous than at present in our great woods ; 

 which I attribute not so much to special persecu- 

 tion as to the disappearance of nearly all the aged 

 oak trees which used to form such a distinguishing 

 feature in our woodland scenery, and in the hollow 

 recesses of which the tawny owl deposited its eggs 

 and reared its young. An opinion has for some 

 time been prevalent among proprietors in these 

 districts, that under the existing state of duties on 

 foreign timber,* and the present high value of oak 

 bark, it " pays better," as the phrase is, to fell the 

 trees when comparatively young, than to suffer 

 them to arrive at maturity, as their ancestors did. 

 Under these circumstances there is but little 



* This was written before the late alteration in the tariff. 



