146 A FEATHERED WASTER 

 to the Little Owl time is obviously money, 

 for it was not long before a brown bird, 

 not unlike a large thrush, fluttered out of 

 the tree and flew to a may hedge running 

 at right angles to the covert. A large 

 white cabbage butterfly drifted past, and 

 was captured dexterously by the alien. 

 Now cabbage butterflies are a distinct pest, 

 so one good mark was registered to the 

 accused. Shortly he descended into the 

 sapling corn, probably to take a beetle or 

 mouse, and as these are not yet valuable 

 as human food he was given another good 

 mark. 



He flew away after this, and landed a 

 hundred yards down the hedge. Some- 

 thing drew his attention, something that 

 was in the hedge itself. He dropped 

 to the ground, and through my glasses I 

 could see that he was climbing up the 

 branches. When he returned, it was with 

 something in his beak. I ran over the 

 field and found that he had been robbing 



