Why Protect the Birds? 303 



preyed upon by aquatic birds." In the language of another, 

 the birds "have been likened to a great standing army which 

 may be concentrated at short notice upon any locality where 

 there is an outbreak of these pests." 



The third class of destructive pests to be considered are 

 the rodents. These belong to the large order of animals hav- 

 ing two large incisor teeth in each jaw, separated from the 

 molar teeth by an empty space and are gnawing animals. 

 Rats, mice, woodchucks, rabbits, muskrats and beavers belong 

 to this order. Every well informed person knows how rapidly 

 these animals increase and how destructive they are to vege- 

 tation. In Australia the progeny of a few pairs of imported 

 rabbits have overrun the country, its vegetation has been 

 threatened with utter destruction and millions of dollars have 

 been spent in an effort to get rid of the pest, and the warfare 

 yet goes on. In this country, if not kept in check, they are 

 among our most destructive pests and especially is this so 

 in our vineyards and orchards where they do so much dam- 

 age in girdling our vines and trees. Rats and mice are equally 

 destructive. Owls, hawks and shrikes are our most effective 

 aids in destroying these pests and keeping them in check. 



It was Gilbert White of Selborne, the English clergyman 

 and naturalist of the eighteenth century, who directed at- 

 tention to the fact that the owls destroy many rodents. Much 

 has been said about hunting with a camera and studying the 

 birds with a field glass. Gilbert White studied them with 

 sympathetic eyes as he tramped through his parish, "an as- 

 semblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heather and water." Near 

 by his parish house stood a tree with a cavity, in which lived 

 a pair of owls. He noticed a large quantity of pellets at the 

 root of the tree which had been regurgitated by the owls. He 

 examined them and discovered that the owls had destroyed 

 great quantities of mice and other rodents. Since then his 

 observations have been confirmed by many naturalises. In 

 the city of Washington two hundred pellets were taken from 

 beneath the nest of a barn owl and examined and found to con- 

 tain four hundred and fifty-four sculls, of which two hundred 

 and twenty-five were meadow mice, two pine mice, one hun- 

 dred and seventy-nine house mice, twenty rats, six jumping 



