FOLK-LORE 31 



among the chief charms of the old-world manor 

 houses of England ; and no meaner an observer than 

 Gilbert White was inclined to put down the wholesale 

 destruction of the young pigeons within it to this 

 self-invited guest. He occupied, so it was thought, 

 one niche in the columbarium, that he might feed 

 freely on the young occupants of the adjoining 

 niches ! But another observer of Nature, Waterton, 

 who will always be remembered with gratitude by 

 lovers of birds, for the protection which, on the 

 principle, the only true principle, of "live and let 

 live," and of so preserving the balance of Nature, 

 he gave on his own estate to those interesting and 

 beautiful birds of prey, such as hawks and magpies, 

 which were persecuted elsewhere, showed by 

 careful observation of his dovecote, which a pair of 

 barn owls had adopted as their own, that " the 

 saddle had been laid on the wrong horse." From 

 the moment that he was able to exclude rats from 

 his dovecote, there was no further massacre of the 

 innocents ; and, thenceforward, both barn owls and 

 pigeons lived, and laid their eggs, and hatched and 

 reared their young, as members of one happy 

 family. Pigeons do not mob the barn owl who 

 lives amongst them, because they know him well. 

 Other birds do mob him, because, being a 



