716 



THE GREAT HORNED OWL AS A RATTER. 



Mr. IV'ujainin M. Evcihart, the Chester county 

 hotanist and naturalist, who some years aj;o did a 

 wholesaU^ };rocery business in West Chester, Pa., j^ives 

 tlie foilowinii as his ex})erienfe with a Great Horned 

 Owl. 



"The cellar and building where we had our gruceries was 

 literally overrun with Rats. I tried a barrel-trap and caught 

 a good many, but this and other devices made no perceptible 

 decrease in their numbers. One day I obtained a young Great 

 Horned Owl, nearly full feathered, and put him in the cellar 

 where the Rats were doing much mischief. The bird was fed 

 on fresh meat, birds and dead Rats and Mice, and in a short 

 time became, apparently, well contented in his new and dark 

 home, where he grew quite tame and learned to know me. He 

 occupied a perch near the middle of the cellar, and close to 

 the floor above the same. One day I took a lot of wheat, corn 

 and oats and spread them on the floor and covered these over 

 loosely withsome straw. This proved to be a most alluring bait 

 for the Rats. They came there to feed, and the Owl would fly 

 down and kill and eat them. In a short time he killed or drove 

 off all the Rats." 



THE BARRED OWL, AND RATS. 



Dr. A, K. Fisher, Ornithologist of the Biological Sur- 

 vey, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 

 says that an acquaintance of his who owns a brewery 

 in New York State, tried in vain for several years to 

 destroy the Rats and Mice which lived in the place 

 wheie Ills grains were stored. Finally one day he ob- 

 tained fronj a bo-y a live Barred Owl and put it in the 

 grain room. The Owl got down to business at once 

 and in a few months killed all the rodents in the 

 place. 



THE SCREECH OWL .\ND MICE. 



The Screech Owl is fond of Mice and if one is kept 

 in a cellar where these troublesome little pests are it 



