OTHER BIRDS 83 



their great usefulness, and at least to leave 

 them alone. Some, indeed, do more than 

 this, and I know of two cases where the 

 pigeon cote in the hay-loft has been given up 

 to them. Through the back door of one of 

 these cotes I have been able to see at my 

 ease the funny little round-faced hissing 

 young ones, and I was quite surprised to find 

 how very long it is before the fully-fledged 

 birds turn out of the nest. My friend at 

 Heatley was one of those who entertained 

 the owls, and he told me that if an old bird 

 accidentally dropped a mouse as he made his 

 way into the loft, he never by any chance 

 attempted to recover it. He said he used on 

 winter evenings to see the owls fly along the 

 eaves of the neighbouring houses and inside 

 the roof of a hayshed close by, beating with 

 their wings to drive out the sparrows that 

 were roosting there, and he found the remains 

 of a great many sparrows in their casts. 



A barn-owl appeared in the garden one day 

 in May, 1899. It did all it could to hide 

 itself in the bushes and thick Scotch firs, but 

 in spite of its efforts the birds in the neigh- 

 bourhood, led on apparently by the black- 

 birds, found it out again and again, and kept 

 up a ceaseless noise and commotion as long 

 as it was here. (I noticed that the fowls, 

 both cocks and hens, joined in the general 

 clamour.) In December, however, I have 

 seen an owl fly into one of the out-houses in 



