66 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [CHAP. VH. 



sharp kind of cry during the daytime in the shady solitudes of 

 the pine-woods. 



The white or barn-owl is rare here, and very seldom seen. I 

 believe him to have been almost eradicated by traps and keepers. 



With regard to the mischief done by owls, all the harm they 

 do is amply repaid by their utility in destroying a much more 

 serious nuisance in the shape not only of the different kinds of 

 mice, but of rats also, these animals being their principal food 

 and the prey which they are most adapted for catching. 



I knew an instance where the owls having been nearly de- 

 stroyed by the numerous pole-traps placed about the fields for 

 the destruction of them and the hawks, the rats and mice in- 

 creased to such an extent on the disappearance of these their 

 worst enemies, and committed such havoc among the nursery- 

 gardens, farm-buildings, &c., that the proprietor was obliged to 

 have all the pole-traps taken down, and the owls having been 

 allowed to increase again, the rats and mice as quickly dimi- 

 nished in number. When the long-eared owls have young, they 

 are not particular as to what they prey upon, and I have found 

 the remains of many different kinds of game about their nests. 



The wings of the owl are peculiarly adapted for seizing their 

 sharp-eared prey with silence : were it otherwise, from not 

 having the rapidity of the hawk and other birds of prey, the owl 

 would have little chance of catching the active little mouse. 

 As it is, he comes silently and surely near the ground, and 

 dropping down on the unfortunate mouse, surrounds it with his 

 wings, and grasping it in his sharp and powerful claws, soon 

 puts an end to the little animal. The wings are fringed with 

 a downy texture, which makes his flight quite inaudible on the 

 calmest night. The numbers of mice destroyed by a breeding 

 pair of owls must be enormous, and the service they perform by 

 so doing very great to the farmer, the planter, and the gardener. 

 Though neither cats nor owls ever eat the little shrew-mouse, 

 they always strike and kill it when opportunity offers, leaving 

 the animal on the spot. What there is so obnoxious to all 

 animals of prey in this little creature it is impossible to say. 

 Besides the shrew we have the common house-mouse, the short- 

 cared mouse, and that beautiful bright-eyed kind the long-tailed 



