1908-1909.] 



173 



castings of this Owl, there were found the remains of 3 rats, 237 

 mice, 693 voles, 1,590 shrews, 16 bats, 1 mole, and 22 birds, of 

 which 19 were sparrows, a total of 2,520 members of the mouse 

 family. The result of an examination of 225 castings from a 

 County Antrim glen showed that they contained 10 shrews, 22 

 rats, 5 house-mice, 357 field-mice, 3 bats, 5 blackbirds, and 7 

 sparrows, making a total of 40 1 injurious animals ; while an 

 instance was recorded a few weeks ago where a Barn Owl brought 

 27 rats and mice to its young in two nights. 



Much the same may be said about the Long-eared and the 

 Short-eared Owls. The latter is especially useful. When the 

 South of Scotland was overrun by Voles in 1892, Short-eared 

 Owls not only came to the locality in unusual numbers, but 

 remained and bred all over the affected spot, and the service 

 rendered by them to the sheep-farmers was enormous. To give 

 three instances alone, 29 dead Voles were taken from the side of 

 one nest, and the next day 27 from the same place. In another 

 case, 37 dead Voles were found beside a nest containing 10 eggs. 

 Yet all these birds I have just mentioned, known to be 

 pre-eminently useful to us, are shot by men who seem unable to 

 distinguish between the good and the bad. The natural result, 

 therefore, of so much misplaced zeal has been an enormous 

 increase in Wood-Pigeons, Sparrows, Rats, and Mice, which, now 

 that their natural enemies, the birds of prey, have been destroyed, 

 multiply unchecked, and yearly consume great quantities of 

 valuable cereals and other farm and garden produce. Very few 

 people realise how much in jQ s. d. this loss means. It was stated 

 recently by an authority, that if we take the very lowest figures, 

 and allow that one rat per cultivated acre does one farthing's 

 damage per day — and those who live in the country will at once 

 reject these figures as being absurdly low — the loss in Great 

 Britain alone will be 15 million pounds annually. 



The only other bird we know really anything definite about 

 is the House Sparrow, known in America as the English Sparrow. 



