104 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



owls do any harm at all to game, and all owls do 

 far more good than harm. The short-eared owls, 

 by preying on young game, may incur the wrath 

 of the keeper in the North, where they breed, but 

 seeing that in the South these owls appear only 

 when there is no young game, there is no case 

 against them. The worst evidence I ever heard 

 brought against the barn-owl was that one was 

 found in possession of a dead pheasant chick, though 

 there seemed to be considerable doubt as to how 

 it came by it. It is certain, however, that where 

 barn-owls forage in the vicinity of young pheasants, 

 after they go to roost, they are apt to frighten 

 them. The tawny, brown, or wood, and the long- 

 eared owls are the only ones against which may be 

 brought just accusation of killing game. Of the 

 two, the long-eared sort is the most ferocious, 

 certainly in appearance. I had shifted a batch of 

 pheasants to covert, which an assistant was to look 

 after. The man came to me the morning following 

 the birds' first night in covert, and said there must 

 be stoats on the war-path, for he had found a .bird 

 with its head off. I went to investigate. There 

 was no doubt about the bird's head being off, and 

 the flesh was picked off the neck, which told me 

 that the crime had not been committed by stoats. 

 The body of the bird lay at the edge of the ride, 

 and at dusk I set a trap to it, leaving instructions 

 that it was to be thrown at daybreak next morning, 



