THE BARN OWL 153 



taste for young game birds in localities where there exists high 

 agricultural practice ? This implies relative scarcity of mice and 

 voles, and we have it on the authority of Messrs. Burgess & Co., 

 Malvern Wells, that the kestrel will " take very young game, if 

 easily obtainable, and when once it has visited the coops and 

 found out the young birds, it seems to prefer them to anything 

 else." Thus the interests of the forester, farmer, nurseryman, 

 and gardener, here clash with full indulgence of the game-preserver's 

 sporting tastes. 



BARN OWL. This far too scarce bird is sometimes classed among 

 the winged vermin, but we think very unjustly, though some 

 gamekeepers aver that it may occasionally take a young pheasant 

 or rabbit, yet admit that the amount of good the owl does by 

 destroying mice and rats should preserve it from persecution. 

 Besides, it should be remembered that the owl is a night bird, and 

 when it is abroad the young birds should be safe under the hen. 

 Landowners, sporting tenants, and some keepers protect owls as 

 far as possible. Contrarily the poultry-keeper, often not knowing 

 one kind from another, is not so merciful, every bird in the shape 

 of a hawk or owl being shot if coming within range of his coops. 

 What for ? The bird-stuff er ! Museums must have specimens, 

 cases of stuffed birds must grace dwellings of the well-to-do, and 

 gratify the tastes of indoor ornithologists, even to the depicting 

 of ladies' hats. 



COMMON CREEPER. The tree-creeper is so active and assiduous 

 in minding its own business that no one, unless the stone-throwing 

 boy, strives to do it mischief. In woods, on hedgerow trees, in 

 pleasure grounds and orchards, the tree-creeper is most useful, 

 eating spiders, caterpillars, pupae and eggs of insects, even removing 

 scale to get at the ova. 



WREN. Active, fearless, ever searching for eggs, larvae, pupae of 

 insects, and in due season feeding its young on green caterpillars, 

 and other soft insects, such as aphides, and never taking any food 

 but small wild seeds, hence altogether a boon to cultivators, even 

 of woods that receive little or no cultural attention. 



GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN. Though not so frequently met with 

 in gardens as the common wren, it is quite as fearless, and equally 

 useful in plantations and woods as in pleasure grounds and fruit 

 plantations in destroying the eggs, larvae, pupae, and mature insects. 



FIRE-CRESTED WREN. This merits the highest encomiums, alike 

 for its beauty as for its value in combating against the smaller 

 insect enemies of trees. 



LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. Nothing but good can be said of this 

 bird in the woods and plantations, and though credited with some- 

 times doing injury to fruit bushes and trees by attacking the buds, 

 this is not consonant with our experience. 



COLE TITMOUSE. In woods and plantations no greater benefactor 



