FOR CAGES AND AVIARIES. 



mice and other small rodents, and the tales circulated by 

 gamekeepers and others that it is destructive to the sacred 

 Partridge and birds of that class, are utterly devoid of 

 foundation, the proof being- that in those localities where 

 it has been exterminated field mice have increased to an 

 alarming extent. It also eats the larger beetles, especially 



the destructive 

 insect known as 

 the stag beetle : 

 this, or rather its 

 larva, does much 

 harm to trees, in 

 the heart of which 

 it lives, moves and 

 has its being for 

 several years be- 

 fore undergoing 

 its final metamor- 

 phosis. 



The cry of this 

 Owl is a harsh 

 prolongation of 

 the sounds "tee- 

 whit" (the i to 

 be pronounced in 

 the old English 

 fashion and not 

 ee, which is the 



THE BARN OWL. ^German sound of 



the third vowel), 



which is so weird as to cause wholly unnecessary alarm, 

 for the bird is not only quite harmless but extremely 

 useful when confined to its native haunts. 



The Tawny Owl. 



This bird differs a good deal from the Barn Owl, not 

 only in appearance but in habits. In feather it is darker, 

 if in size about the same, but it nests on the ground, as 

 often as not in the mouth of a rabbit-burrow, but. some- 



