OWL SANCTUARIES 73 



he will, at least, feel that there is room for a new 

 branch of the " Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 

 Society," and be anxious to join an " Anti- Pole- 

 trap League " a league against a practice which 

 involves the horrors of the operating-room of the 

 vivisectionist, without any of the vivisectionist's 

 excuse.* 



But, appeals to humanity apart, let me also once 

 more point out to all connected with the land that 

 self-interest, if no higher motive, demands the 

 instant abolition of the pole-trap. Large portions 

 of England, my own neighbourhood amongst them, 

 are at this moment being devastated by rats. No 

 grain, no fruit is safe from them. They are an 

 efficient agent in the spread of fever and other 

 disease. The owl is their natural enemy, the 

 check kindly placed by Nature may we not say 

 by God ? on their ravages. No owl can harbour 

 within a mile or two of a pole-trap and live. Let 

 it be anathema. Let the practice of making owl- 

 screens, which suggest everything that is disagree- 

 able in a room, and of wearing owl's wings and 



* Since this passage and others condemning the pole-trap 

 were first written, the pole-trap has been forbidden by law. I 

 have thought it well, however, to retain them just as they were 

 first written, in the text, for reasons which I have given in the 

 preface. 



