56 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XXIV. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



DECEMBER. 



Owls ; destruction of Mice by them — Frogs — Snakes -7- Roe- 

 bucks — Fondness of Birds for Sunshine — Loch of Spynie — 

 Habits of Wild Fowl ; rapidity of their flight — Retrievers — 

 The Otter ; shooting of, by night — Eley's Cartridges — Wild 

 Swans — Accidents in Shooting — Variety of Country in 

 Moray — Forres ; public Walks of — Rabbits — Foxes — Im- 

 migration of Birds — Conclusion. 



During the clear frosty nights of this month we 

 hear the owls hooting for hours together in the old 

 ash trees around the house. Occasionally they used 

 to be caught in the pole-traps set for hawks, but the 

 poor fellows looked so pitiable as they sat upright, 

 held by the legs, that I took down all these traps, 

 which were set near the house. And the owl is far 

 more a friend than an enemy to man : the mischief 

 he does to game is very trifling ; but the service he 

 is of to the gardener, the farmer, and even to the 

 planter of forest trees, by destroying rats and mice, 

 is incalculable, I have a great liking, too, for the 

 quaint, old-fashioned looking bird, and by no means 

 believe him to be the 



" Ignavus bubo, dirum mortalibus omen." 



