A BOOM IN ANIMAL LIFE 279 



tionate to those of the voles. Speaking of the latter, 

 he says, * I followed a weasel which was hunting voles 

 up one of the sheep-drains. I followed it up, and 

 it was killing its sixth. A week past, on Sunday 

 morning, I came down a drain for 250 yards or so. 

 A weasel had been before me, and there were twenty- 

 two dead voles in the bottom. I kept a specimen 

 last night to show you the way a weasel destroys a 

 vole. The blood is entirely drawn from below the 

 left ear. There is not a bit of the vole marked 

 otherwise, except by the teeth-marks on the head/ 

 Another shepherd had counted fourteen nests of 

 short-eared owls on his ground, and stated that a 

 small wood behind the farm of Howparley presented 

 a remarkable appearance, his ground being thickly 

 covered with the ' castings * of owls, composed 

 of the fur and bones of voles. The Committee 

 state that * it would be difficult to condemn too 

 severely the foolish and cruel action of those 

 who allow or encourage the destruction of this 

 useful and beautiful family of birds,' and note 

 that many landowners have issued orders for their 

 preservation. Next to the owl, and hardly second in 

 merit, as a check upon voles and mice, comes the 

 kestrel. Yet its death-warrant is a standing order 

 in most preserves, and the Committee feel so 

 strongly on the subject, that the following portions 



