VOL XV.] ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 287 



On June 29th from a hole at Northrepps, excavated at a 

 height of only three feet and a half, and full of young ones, 

 there proceeded a continuous and not unmusical chirping, 

 rather difficult to describe. This singular chant increases 

 with the growth 01 the nestlings, and is loudest when they are 

 almost ready to fly, but as it is audible fifty yards away it 

 must often lead to detection. This nest was in a birch tree 

 but a second found on July 14th was in an oak, which later 

 snapped off in a gale. As in dividing it disclosed the Wood- 

 pecker's hole, I took some measurements : — 



Entrance (round) . . . . . . 4I inches 



(diameter) 

 Depth of shaft . . 

 Width ,, ,, 



lower 

 Shape . . 

 Nest hole 



3 „ 



19 » 



8 „ 



7 - 

 nearly cylindrical 

 quite clean. 



The heart of the tree was not sound, which was probabl}'^ 

 known to the Woodpeckers before they began to hew. 

 Although the chips at the foot of the tree are the best means 

 of discovering a nest, they do not always mean that the hole 

 is tenanted, for \A'oodpeckers have a habit of sometimes 

 making several excavations before the downward shaft is 

 finally begun. 



Barn-Owl (Tyto a. alba). 



Owls prtying upon Moles. — Owing to the drought in June 

 and July, the two driest months of the year, moles had to 

 die or to come above ground, and many must have perished, 

 for they could neither feed nor burrow. One result of this 

 was that Owls began to prey upon them. Now a mole is not 

 greatly to the taste of a Barn-Owl, nor indeed of any bird of 

 prey, however, the}^ had to eat them in default of field-mice, 

 rejecting the indigestible parts of course. On July 29th the 

 dried-up remains of no less than nine moles were lying under 

 one Barn-Owl's " tub," besides another at a little distance, 

 which had been dropped in the night. Not very long before 

 this testimony to the Barn-Owl's utility was being displayed 

 — namely on March nth — fourteen dead Barn-Owls were to 

 be seen suspended with other " vermin " on an estate not very 

 far from here . I did not see them but have it on unimpeachable 

 authority. Expostulations were at once made, and I hope 

 there is an end to such mistaken persecution. 



