Nature's Militia 2X1 



Owls are the very best mousers possible — better than 

 the best cats. One pair of owls have been seen to take 

 as many as eleven mice to their nest in the course of a 

 single evening. Ravens, crows, hawks, magpies, and jays 

 all hunt mice, as well as cockchafers and other insects, as 

 already said; and the young of the brown owl are fed 

 with anything, from snails even to kittens and puppies. 

 But the young of the barn-owl require a steady supply of 

 fresh mice, and she herself makes mice almost her sole 

 diet, so that she benefits not only corn but clover. For 

 if it is true that the crop of clover-seed depends to a great 

 extent upon the number of cats in the neighborhood, surely 

 the presence or absence of those grand mousers, the owls, 

 must make at least as much difference to it. For mice 

 are very much addicted to eating humble-bees, as well as 

 corn; and as the common purple clover is fertilized by 

 humble-bees only, there can be no seed where humble- 

 bees are wanting, which they certainly would be if mice 

 were allowed to multiply unchecked. 



In America, birds of prey are comparatively rare; not 

 because they have been killed off, as in England, but 

 because nature had not provided them— a very different 

 matter. But now that the English sparrow has made 

 himself unpleasantly obtrusive, hawks are being imported 

 as the only likely means of quelling him. Why hawks 

 instead of owls is not evident, but it will be interesting to 

 watch the result of this second experiment; for if the 

 hawks in their turn should increase to excess they might 

 prove even worse than sparrows. 



In some parts of the world the balance of animal life 

 established by nature is very curious, and any interference 

 with it is attended by danger. In some districts in India, 



