44 -IN BIRD-LAND 



such creatures as only fit for nailing up- in their 

 " museum," and thus laugh at any one who tries 

 to prove that they really do good by destroying 

 hosts of rats and mice. There are said to be 

 intelligent and more humane keepers who are 

 beginning to see the folly of such wholesale 

 slaughter, but I have never myself met with one 

 of this mettle. Two years ago the Tawny Owl 

 might at times be heard in our suburban woods ; 

 but a certain keeper on an estate near cleared them 

 off with that brutal instrument of torture, the pole 

 trap, in that way catching as many as fifteen in a 

 few months. It was no wonder therefore that the 

 familiar cry of the Tawny Owl, whoo-whoo, hoo-e-oo, 

 was for a time no more to be heard in the fields 

 and woodlands of the district referred to. During 

 the present spring (1900), however, some more of 

 these Owls have appeared to enliven the country- 

 side with their cries. 



I have, at different times, carefully examined 

 pellets cast up by the Tawny Owl, but have never 

 seen any remains of birds in them. Last spring, 

 however, a young chicken was found in a hole in 

 a tree near an Owl's nest, the hole being probably 

 thus used as a larder, for on the next day the 

 remains had gone. Noticing a number of pellets 

 under the tree I looked up to see if the Owl was 



