A WOODLAND MURDER. 51 



and three the next. This was in the first week 

 of April 1898. 



One of the fishermen, who nets the river, told 

 me he has seen a brown owl try to take fish 

 and had watched them gliding close to the 

 water; so it would seem that trout may have 

 other enemies besides you and I, the heron and 

 the otter, to keep them wary at night. Of 

 course a close inspection of their regurgitated 

 pellets would soon settle the point. Gilbert 

 White says the young will eat any carrion or 

 offal that may be brought, and are therefore not 

 exacting like barn owlets as to their food being 

 freshly killed. 



