WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



trap, or allow the eggs to be taken, of hawks 

 and owls. Owls, and the kestrel in particular, 

 live almost entirely on mice and young rats, 

 and when we kill a barn owl (the barn owl is 

 the white owl which flies about so silently over 

 the fields) we are allowing hundreds of mice to 

 live and thrive and eat our things. 



(Note. The bank voles, Evotomys, are widely 

 distributed throughout the northern hemispheres, 

 E. glareolus being the commonest European repre- 

 sentive of the genus. The British bank voles are as 

 follows : E. glareolus britannicus, differing in several 

 particulars from the Continental type, and which 

 is widely distributed throughout England, Scotland, 

 and Wales, but does not extend to Ireland. An 

 allied but distinct species has been found on Skomer 

 Island, off the coast of Wales, and has been named 

 E. skomerensis. Then there is E. alstoni, lately dis- 

 covered on the Island of Mull, and E. erica, peculiar 

 to the Island of Raasay.) 



44 



