40 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



always kept shut in the coop, the little puff-balls 

 of pheasants, as they are in those early days, 

 run in and out between the bars, and once 

 outside are, of course, without protection. The 

 Owl has noticed this fact, and it may be seen 

 sitting on the top of the coop watching till one 

 of the little birds is conveniently near, and down 

 it swoops and carries it away for its own family's 

 dinner ; this it will repeat time after time till it 

 has cleared off the whole lot. This can only 

 happen, of course, when the young pheasants are 

 very very small — a few days old — and hand-reared, 

 for if they were out and about with their own 

 mother — or in the case of partridges their own 

 father — they would be safe, as neither would allow 

 such an impudent attack to be made without 

 going for the murderous marauder. It has only 

 been after years and years of persistent effort that 

 gamekeepers have been induced to learn that all 

 ordinary owls flying at night-time — when all young 

 birds are safe under their mothers' wings — are 

 harmless, and that from the good they do in 

 clearing off hundreds of mice and young rats, 

 should be, and must be, protected. They are 

 now protected ; but this newcomer arrives — 

 not an ordinary night owl at all — and the whole 





