248 BARN OWL KESTREL. [PART II. 



and acted upon with reference to their supposed 

 destructiveness to game ; and considering that 

 every other kind of Hawk (properly so called) 

 and Owl, which are at all common here, are un- 

 doubtedly very destructive to it, it is not at all 

 surprising that these two should have been often 

 classed in one common category and indiscrimi- 

 nately proscribed as vermin. 



ISTow as to the Barn Owl, I believe there never 

 was a bad name more undeservedly given. It is 

 just possible that under the influence of hunger 

 he may be driven to pick up a very small leveret 

 or young bird (though I have never heard of 

 such a case), but his ordinary food undoubtedly 

 consists almost exclusively of mice and rats, and 

 his presence is therefore a positive benefit to the 

 farmer and gardener, and an advantage rather 

 than otherwise to the game-preserver, rats being 

 decidedly enemies to game. A friend of mine 

 tells me that he saw the other day a rat engaged 

 in hunting a young rabbit as regularly as a stoat 

 might have done it. 



Of the Kestrel I am sorry to be unable to speak 

 quite so respectfully. There is no doubt that, as 

 Yarrell says, "Mice constitute by far the most 

 considerable part of their food/' their diet being 



