FEBRUARY 37 



sure enough, in a trap which was set beside the half- 

 eaten carcass of a hen pheasant, a brown owl was found 

 in the morning. One is most unwilling to convict of 

 this crime a bird which does such a power of good in 

 killing rats and mice; and the evidence is far from 

 complete. It does not follow, because the owl was 

 attracted to the body of a hen pheasant, that the 

 pheasant was originally killed by the owl ; still less that 

 this owl and his comrades had murdered eleven sitting 

 woodcocks. But it must be confessed that the primd 

 facie case is a strong one, and we must not shrink from 

 the conclusion, whatever it may be, that will no doubt 

 be reached through observation in the next nesting 



Now for the defence, for which I put in the box a 

 competent and trustworthy witness in the person of 

 Mr. J. Whitaker, who tells the following remarkable 

 story in his Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire 

 (Walter Black and Co., Ltd.). 



' Many years ago we kept a lot of pigeons, but one spring 

 could never raise a pie. On asking the keeper the reason, 

 he replied, " It 's all along of those old owls ; they fetch them 

 every night." I said, " I don't believe it." " "Well, sir, if you 

 will come at dusk I will show you." We placed ourselves, 

 and soon an owl came and went into the dovecot. " He 's 

 gone for one," said the keeper. In a few moments out he 

 came with something in his claws, and was immediately shot. 

 On picking it up we found, not a pigeon, but a big rat.' 



The owl in question was a tawny owl (Strix flammed), 

 and he died not in vain if his fate serves to warn 

 country dwellers not to trust too much to appearances. 



