200 WOODLAND CREATURES 



disappears down its capacious throat ; another 

 gulp, and only the tail remains ; a third, and 

 the mouse vanishes completely. The owl may 

 remain in a contemplative attitude for a minute 

 or two, but it soon wipes its beak on the post 

 and is ready for the next incautious mouse that 

 stirs abroad. 



Gamekeepers, with certain enlightened ex- 

 ceptions, make the great mistake of destroying 

 owls, not recognizing that in the Tawny and 

 Long-Eared Owls we have the greatest mouse- 

 killers of our woodlands. They allege that they 

 destroy young pheasants, the story being that 

 the owls knock the young birds off their perches 

 after they have gone up to roost at night, and 

 then pounce on them as they run about on 

 the ground. But not one of the men who 

 I have talked to has ever said he has seen it 

 happen, only that " it is what they all say." 

 " They say " is not very convincing evidence, 

 and against it I can give the case of the young 

 pheasants that were reared under a tree wherein 

 a pair of Tawny Owls had their nest. I had a 

 score of pheasant chicks and some partridges 

 being foster-mothered by hens in coops, which 

 were placed close to an old hollow ash tree in 

 which the owls had four hungry owlets, but the 

 owls never interfered with the chicks, and the 

 young pheasants, partridges, and owlets were all 

 reared safely. 



Of course an eccentric owl may do things 

 and kill things that are unusual for the species 





