8o ASNAPPER. 



I have several times observed a brown owl flying 

 quite late in the evening closely pursued by enraged 

 blackbirds screaming their loudest notes of anger 

 and fear, and I gather from this that the owl is apt 

 to prey upon small birds and possibly robs their 

 nests of eggs or young fledglings. 



Several writers assert that this bird also feeds 

 on fish, being able to catch those swimming near 

 the surface. There can be no doubt of the 

 extreme value of owls in reducing the number 

 of rats and mice, and it is to be hoped that 

 landowners, in their own interest, if for no better 

 motive, will take pains to instruct their game- 

 keepers to protect such useful allies to the farmer 

 and gardener. I met with an amusing instance 

 of the value of the owl as a mouser when staying 

 at a farmhouse in Surrey. The farmer's daughter 

 told me her brother had just discovered " a 'howl's' 

 nest in the pigeon coo," and going up a ladder to 

 examine it more closely had found two eggs in the 

 nest, and ranged around it were fourteen dead 

 mice ! If that was the result of one evening's 

 foraging, we need no other proof that owls are 

 worthy of encouragement and protection. 



